Brian Zeger, piano
Pianist Brian Zeger has built an important career not only as a pianist, appearing in distinguished concert venues throughout the United States and Europe, but also as an ensemble performer par excellence, radio broadcaster, artistic administrator and educator.
In a career spanning more than two decades, Mr. Zeger has enjoyed collaborations with many of the world’s top artists - violinist Itzhak Perlman, flutist James Galway, actress Claire Bloom, and numerous song recitalists including Marilyn Horne, Kathleen Battle, Arleen Auger, Frederica von Stade, Samuel Ramey, Susan Graham, Bryn Terfel, Maria Bayo, Thomas Hampson and Joyce DiDonato. Recent and upcoming engagements include recitals with Deborah Voigt, Dame Kiri te Kanawa, Denyce Graves, René Pape, Hei-Kyung Hong, Adrianne Pieczonka, Juliane Banse and Isabel Leonard.
Mr. Zeger also enjoys an active career as a chamber musician. From 1993-2000 he was artistic director of the Cape and Islands Chamber Music Festival, headquartered on Cape Cod and now in its 29th season, where his performances included collaborations with the Borromeo and Brentano Quartets as well as with Bernard Greenhouse, Glenn Dicterow, Eugene Drucker and Paula Robison. He has been a regular guest at many other summer festivals including Aspen, Ravinia, Caramoor, Aldeburgh, and Santa Fe, and collaborates regularly with An die Musik and the New York Philharmonic Chamber Ensembles. He has also made concerto appearances with the Boston Pops.
In addition to his distinguished concert career he also serves as Artistic Director of the Vocal Arts Department at The Juilliard School and as the director of the vocal program at the Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival. In addition, at the end of the 2007-2008 season, he will also take on the role of Executive Director of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artists Development Program in partnership with The Juilliard School. He has been on the faculties of the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, the Chautauqua Institute, the Mannes College of Music and the Peabody Conservatory and has given master classes for numerous institutions, including The Guildhall School of Music in London, Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Tanglewood Music Center, and the Marilyn Horne Foundation.
Some of his critical essays and other writings have appeared in Opera News, The Yale Review and Chamber Music magazine. He has appeared frequently on the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts both on the opera quiz and as intermission host and performer. He has the distinction of creating, narrating and performing in five intermission features devoted to art song, a first in the long history of the Met broadcasts. He has adjudicated the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the Concert Artists Guild auditions and the Walter W. Naumberg Vocal Competition. His recordings may be heard on the EMI Classics, New World, Naxos and Koch record labels, his most recent recording being All My Heart, a recital of American songs with soprano Deborah Voigt.
Born in upstate New York, Mr. Zeger is now a resident of Manhattan. He holds a bachelor's degree in English Literature from Harvard College, a master's degree from The Juilliard School and a doctorate from the Manhattan School of Music. His important teachers have included Morris Borenstein, Sascha Gorodnitzki and Nina Svetlanova.