Boris Berman

Boris Berman’s artistic qualities have made him one of the most sought-after piano pedagogues in the world. As head of the piano department at Yale University, he has guided more than 100 students who have achieved international success in competitions. As a pianist, he is known to audiences in more than fifty countries across six continents. His widely acclaimed performances have included concerts with such orchestras as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra (London), the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, and the Royal Scottish Orchestra. In addition to appearing as a highly sought-after soloist in major recital series, he has performed at prestigious festivals, including Marlboro, Bergen, Ravinia, Nohant, and the Israel Festival, to name just a few.
Mr. Berman is also an active chamber musician. He has performed in numerous concerts and festivals with distinguished musicians and ensembles, including Misha Maisky, Heinz Holliger, Aurèle Nicolet, Shlomo Mintz, György Pauk, Ralph Kirshbaum, Frans Helmerson, Claude Frank, Alexei Lubimov, Peter Frankl, Natalia Gutman, the Tokyo Quartet, the Vermeer Quartet, the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, and many others.
An internationally renowned and dedicated educator, Boris Berman has served on the faculties of some of the world’s leading music schools, including Indiana University in Bloomington and the Boston Conservatory. He currently heads the piano department at the Yale School of Music. In 2005, he was appointed Honorary Professor at the Shanghai Conservatory, and in 2013, Honorary Professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. In 2017, the China Conservatory in Beijing awarded him the honorary title of “Specially Appointed Professor.”
His ability to recognize young talent and his deep commitment to nurturing it are clear reasons why he is regularly invited to serve on the juries of national and international competitions, including those in Leeds, Dublin, Beijing, and Shanghai, as well as the Artur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition.
In the field of recordings, his highly acclaimed releases on the Philips, Deutsche Grammophon, and Melodiya labels were followed by two CDs featuring the complete piano sonatas of Alexander Scriabin for Music & Arts, and a recital of piano works by Shostakovich for Ottavo Recordings. The latter received the Edison Classic Award in the Netherlands, the Dutch equivalent of the Grammy.
His recording of three piano concertos by Prokofiev with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Neeme Järvi (Chandos) marked the beginning of an ambitious project to record Prokofiev’s complete works for solo piano. As the first pianist to undertake this task, Mr. Berman released the project in a nine-CD set on Chandos, which received outstanding critical acclaim. Chandos has also released Mr. Berman’s recital recordings featuring works by Debussy, Stravinsky, and Schnittke, as well as chamber music by Janáček and, together with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande conducted by Neeme Järvi, a concerto by Stravinsky.