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 famed 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. 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 Lutoslawski. 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, which began in 1979 with her recording of Frederic Rzewski's monumental The People United Will Never Be Defeated! 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.
© James Manheim /TiVo
-
Meredith Monk: Piano Songs
Classical - Released by ECM New Series on 21 Mar 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bolcom: Music for Solo Piano
Ursula Oppens, Christopher Taylor, Constantine Finehouse, Estela Olevsky
Classical - Released by Naxos on 1 Dec 2017
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
American Violin Music: 1947-2000
Classical - Released by Centaur Records, Inc. on 9 Feb 2024
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Elliott Carter: Piano Concerto/Variations for Orchestra
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Ursula Oppens
Classical - Released by New World Records on 1 Jan 1986
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Frederic Rzewski: The People United Will Never Be Defeated & 4 Hands
Classical - Released by Cedille on 11 Sep 2015
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Musique pour piano (Intégrale) (Elliott Carter)
Classical - Released by Cedille Records on 14 Oct 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rzewski: The People United Will Never Be Defeated
Classical - Released by Vanguard on 16 Jul 2021
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Winging It (John Corigliano)
Classical - Released by Cedille Records on 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
Classical - Released by Cedille on 9 Apr 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
-
Piano Music - Nancarrow / Bolcom / Carter, E. / Sahl, M. / Hemphill / Adams, J. / Foss / Rzewski / Wuorinen / Picker / Harbison (Conlon Nancarrow - William Bolcom - Elliott Carter)
Classical - Released by Music and Arts Programs of America on 1 Jan 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rzewski: Night Crossing
Frederic Rzewski, Ursula Oppens
Classical - Released by Music and Arts Programs of America on 1 Jan 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bernard Rands: Piano Music
Classical - Released by Bridge Records on 2 Dec 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tobias Picker: Keys to the City - Works for Piano
Classical - Released by wergo on 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
Classical - Released by NEOS Music on 7 Dec 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Two Piano Music of Messiaen and Debussy (Olivier Messiaen - Claude Debussy)
Classical - Released by Cedille on 1 Aug 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Music of Peter Lieberson & Erik Lundborg
Ursula Oppens, Speculum Musicae, Light Fantastic Players
Classical - Released by NWCRI on 15 Dec 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
Classical - Released by Toccata Classics on 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
Classical - Released by Mark Records on 1 Jan 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Thorne/Sessions - Piano Concertos
Classical - Released by New World Records on 1 Jan 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
American Piano Music Of Our Time, Vol. 2
Classical - Released by Music and Arts Programs of America on 1 Apr 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo