Donald Berman
Pianist Donald Berman absorbed the music of Charles Ives and Carl Ruggles from a teacher who championed those composers early and knew their works exhaustively. A leading specialist in the music of the 20th and 21st centuries, Berman is also active as an educator and as a vocal accompanist.
Born in the early '60s, Berman grew up in White Plains, New York. His teacher there was Mildred Victor, a student of Artur Schnabel. Berman attended Wesleyan University, where he studied with George Barth; he graduated in 1984. From 1983 to 1986, Berman studied privately with John Kirkpatrick, who had given the premiere of Ives' Piano Sonata No. 2 ("Concord, Massachusetts") and also often played the works of Ruggles. Berman was one of the last students of Kirkpatrick, who had studied with Nadia Boulanger in France. He went on for a master's degree at the New England Conservatory, working with Leonard Shure, who had also worked with Schnabel as an assistant. In 1991, Berman won the Schubert International Competition in Dortmund, Germany.
Berman has concertized around the U.S., Europe, and Israel and has been in special demand for master classes in all these places. His recitals often strive to link classical and modern repertory. Berman recorded for the CRI, New World, Bridge, and Centaur labels in the first part of his career. He has been especially widely recognized for the albums The Unknown Ives (1999), The Unknown Ives, Vol. 2 (2004), and The Uncovered Ruggles (2005), all of which contained newly uncovered works by their respective composers. Berman has also recorded music by contemporary composers Aaron Jay Kernis, Tamar Diesendruck, and Arthur Levering, among others. In 2008, he backed soprano Susan Narucki on The Light That Is Felt: Songs of Charles Ives. He returned in 2016 with Scott Wheeler: Portraits & Tributes - Works for Piano in 2016. Berman teaches at the Longy School of Music at Bard College, where he has served as department chair, and at Tufts University. In 2019, he appeared on the Boston Modern Orchestra Project album George Perle: Serenades, and he returned in 2023, backing Narucki on This Island.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Discography
11 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Ives: Piano Sonata No. 2 “Concord, Mass., 1840–1860” • The St. Gaudens (“Black March”)
Classical - Released by AVIE Records on May 3, 2024
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
The Light That is Felt: Songs of Charles Ives
Classical - Released by New World Records on Jan 1, 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Three Generations
Quan Yuan, Sue-Ellen Hershman-Tcherepnin, David Witten, Ian Greitzer, Donald Berman
Chamber Music - Released by Toccata Next on Mar 18, 2022
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
This Island
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released by AVIE Records on Feb 10, 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Ives: Piano Sonata No. 2, "Concord, Mass., 1840–1860": III. The Alcotts
Classical - Released by AVIE Records on Apr 19, 2024
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
The Uncovered Ruggles
Classical - Released by New World Records on Jan 1, 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Unknown Ives, vol. 2
Classical - Released by New World Records on Jan 1, 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Carl: Shake the Tree
Donald Berman, Moritz Eggert, Erberk Eryilmaz, John McDonald
Classical - Released by Innova on Jun 4, 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ives: The St Gaudens ("Black March")
Classical - Released by AVIE Records on Apr 5, 2024
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Martin Boykan: Music for Piano
Classical - Released by Bridge Records on Aug 1, 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Scott Wheeler: Portraits & Tributes
Classical - Released by Bridge Records on May 27, 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo