Ursula Oppens
Pianist Ursula Oppens has dedicated most of her career to performing, recording, and generally working to advance contemporary keyboard literature; many of the most prestigious contemporary composers have dedicated new music to her. At this writing, Oppens has been nominated for Grammy Awards five times.
Oppens was born in New York on February 2, 1944. Her first lessons came from her mother, Edith Oppens, a well-known piano teacher, and she later studied with Leonard Shure. Ursula attended Radcliffe College in Massachusetts, graduating in 1965, and then, settling on a career in music, enrolled in master's degree studies at the Juilliard School in New York. Her teachers there included Rosa Lhévinne and Felix Galimir, and she earned her degree in 1967. She made her New York debut in 1969 and also won first prize that year at the Busoni International Piano Competition. Interested in contemporary music from the beginning, she founded the ensemble Speculum Musicae in 1971 and remained with the group until 1982. In 1978, Oppens made her recording debut on the Piano Classics label with Frederic Rzewski's monumental The People United Will Never Be Defeated! Oppens is notable for the wide range of A-list composers who have written works for her; these include not only Americans, such as Charles Wuorinen, Elliott Carter, and Conlon Nancarrow, but also György Ligeti and Witold Lutosławski. From 1994 to 2008, she was on the piano faculty at Northwestern University, and she also taught courses at the Tanglewood Music Festival's influential summer music institute for some years.
Oppens is especially well known for her large recording catalog. Her releases have mostly but not exclusively been devoted to contemporary music. The Rzewski album garnered a Grammy Award nomination, and Oppens has gone on to earn four more nominations: for Carter: Night Fantasies / Adams: Phrygian Gates (1990), Oppens Plays Carter (2009), Winging It -- Piano Music of John Corigliano (2011), and a second recording of The People United Will Never Be Defeated! in 2015. Oppens has recorded for Cedille, ECM, Arte Nova, and many other labels. Remaining active well into old age, Oppens released the album Fantasy: Oppens Plays Kaminsky on Cedille in 2021. She returned in 2024, backing violinist Rolf Schulte on the Centaur album American Violin Music: 1947 to 2000. By that time, her recording catalog comprised some 30 items.
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Meredith Monk: Piano Songs
Clásica - Editado por ECM New Series el 21 mar. 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bolcom: Music for Solo Piano
Ursula Oppens, Christopher Taylor, Constantine Finehouse, Estela Olevsky
Clásica - Editado por Naxos el 1 dic. 2017
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
American Violin Music: 1947-2000
Clásica - Editado por Centaur Records, Inc. el 9 feb. 2024
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Elliott Carter: Piano Concerto/Variations for Orchestra
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Ursula Oppens
Clásica - Editado por New World Records el 1 ene. 1986
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Frederic Rzewski: The People United Will Never Be Defeated & 4 Hands
Clásica - Editado por Cedille el 11 sept. 2015
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Musique pour piano (Intégrale) (Elliott Carter)
Clásica - Editado por Cedille Records el 14 oct. 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rzewski: The People United Will Never Be Defeated
Clásica - Editado por Vanguard el 16 jul. 2021
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Winging It (John Corigliano)
Clásica - Editado por Cedille Records el 1 may. 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Fantasy
Ursula Oppens, Cassatt String Quartet, Jerome Lowenthal, Arizona State University Symphony Orchestra, Jeffery Meyer
Clásica - Editado por Cedille el 9 abr. 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
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Piano Music - Nancarrow / Bolcom / Carter, E. / Sahl, M. / Hemphill / Adams, J. / Foss / Rzewski / Wuorinen / Picker / Harbison (Conlon Nancarrow - William Bolcom - Elliott Carter)
Clásica - Editado por Music and Arts Programs of America el 1 ene. 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rzewski: Night Crossing
Frederic Rzewski, Ursula Oppens
Clásica - Editado por Music and Arts Programs of America el 1 ene. 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bernard Rands: Piano Music
Clásica - Editado por Bridge Records el 2 dic. 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tobias Picker: Keys to the City - Works for Piano
Clásica - Editado por wergo el 1 jun. 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Erhard Grosskopf: Plejaden, Op. 56 & KlangWerk 11, Op. 64 (Live)
Ursula Oppens, Berlin Deutsches Symphony Orchestra, Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Johannes Kalitzke, Vykintas Baltakas
Clásica - Editado por NEOS Music el 7 dic. 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Two Piano Music of Messiaen and Debussy (Olivier Messiaen - Claude Debussy)
Clásica - Editado por Cedille el 1 ago. 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Music of Peter Lieberson & Erik Lundborg
Ursula Oppens, Speculum Musicae, Light Fantastic Players
Clásica - Editado por NWCRI el 15 dic. 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Intégrale de la musique pour piano solo, orgue solo et deux pianos
Gabrielius Alekna, Matthew Lewis, Ursula Oppens
Clásica - Editado por Toccata Classics el 2 oct. 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Stravinsky & Friends
University of Florida Wind Symphony, Ursula Oppens, Moises Paiewonsky, David A. Waybright, Joel Brown, Stephanie Mair
Clásica - Editado por Mark Records el 1 ene. 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Thorne/Sessions - Piano Concertos
Clásica - Editado por New World Records el 1 ene. 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
American Piano Music Of Our Time, Vol. 2
Clásica - Editado por Music and Arts Programs of America el 1 abr. 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo