Inon Barnatan, piano
Pianist Inon Barnatan established an impressive international reputation, performing in some of the most important music centers worldwide. He was just named a 2009 winner of the Avery Fisher Career Grant. His recent seasons have included appearances in Carnegie Hall in New York, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Salla Verdi in Milan, the Royal Festival, Queen Elizabeth and Wigmore Halls in London, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Arts Theatre in Shanghai and Salle Gaveau in Paris.
In past seasons Inon made his debut with the Israel Philharmonic orchestra, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Jerusalem Symphony orchestra, Portuguese National orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, London Soloists Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of New Europe, Haifa Symphony, Israel Chamber, and Jerusalem Chamber Orchestras. His performances have been broadcast on radio and television internationally in America, Asia, Europe, and Israel.
Highlights of recent seasons include a recital at the prestigious "Rising Stars" series at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, a "Rising Stars" recital at the Gilmore Festival in Michigan, a recital tour of the Baltic region, a chamber music tour of the United States with violinist Miriam Fried and musicians from the Steans Institute.
Born in Tel Aviv in 1979, Inon started playing the piano at the age of 4. He made his orchestral debut at 11, and in the following years won many national prizes playing throughout Israel. In 1997 he moved to London to study at the Royal Academy of Music with Maria Curcio (a student of the legendary Arthur Schnabel) and Christopher Elton. Inon has also received private and public coaching from eminent musicians including Leon Fleisher, Richard Goode, Radu Lupu, Murray Perahia, Claude Frank, Menahem Pressler, and Christoph Eschenbach.
Inon has received many honors and awards, amongst them an honorary Concert Artist diploma from Ecolle Normale in Paris, the Hattori Foundation Award, the America Israel Cultural foundation award, the Royal Over-seas League Young Musician of Promise award and many others.
Inon's live, all-Beethoven recital given at the Auvert Sur-Oise Festival was featured as CD of the month in the October 2002 issue of Classical Magazine in France and has been broadcast on Radio Classique in association with RTL.
In 2004 Inon played Schubert's B-flat sonata in a project organized by Carnegie Hall and led by pianist Leon Fleisher, in which the last four Schubert sonatas were explored in detail and performed at the Carnegie Hall. Of his Performance of the sonata the New Yorker wrote: "Barnatan was naturally poetic; he has an instinctive understanding of Schubert's fragile, deep world...he obtained a hypnotic tone from the piano...he made sounds that might have won the approval of Schnabel himself."
In 2000 Inon Barnatan was chosen as one of six artists to form the roster of the Holland Music Sessions concert management, and subsequently to perform many concerts in Holland and internationally as part of the "New Masters On Tour" program.
A keen chamber music player, Inon is founder member of the award wining Fidelio Piano Quartet, whose list of engagements encompass many of the UK's most prestigious halls and festivals. Other chamber appearances include concerts with the Jerusalem String Quartet, Cellist Natalie Clein, pianist Jonathan Biss, and violinist Liza Ferschtman.
His upcoming season will include recitals at London's Wigmore Hall, the Louvre Auditorium in Paris, the complete Beethoven piano and violin sonatas at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and concerto and solo appearances throughout the UK, USA, Israel, and Europe.
Inon Barnatan
Upcoming Appearances at Chamber Music Society:
Cultural Odyssey: 11/9/2010
Search for Inon Barnatan CDs available for purchase at the Chamber Music Society
photo credit: Marco Borggreve