Jeanne Golan

Pianist Jeanne Golan continues to offer fresh perspectives on combining standard and contemporary works in innovative ways. Her insightful programming has been noted in the Philadelphia Inquirer, which also describes her “gift and ability to clarify the core of music” and “her trademark lyricism and admirable sense of pace.” The New York Times has found her playing to be “technically polished and superbly expressive.”

Ms. Golan has performed extensively throughout the United States and Europe. As a soloist, she has appeared with the American Symphony Chamber Orchestra under Leon Botstein, the Greenwich Symphony Orchestra and the Hunter Symphony. As a chamber musician, she has performed with the Lark and Cavani Quartets, and with members of the Boston Symphony and Metropolitan Opera Orchestras. Her extensive work with singers includes the CD, Songs of Henry Cowell, which was hailed by Michael Tilson Thomas in the New York Times. Ms. Golan has worked with the Philip Glass Ensemble on Einstein on the Beach, and with the contemporary music groups MATA, Theodore Wiprud/New Music Productions and the Friends & Enemies of New Music. Actively involved in the fostering of works by new composers and discovering relatively unknown musical treasures, Ms. Golan has an impressive assortment of pieces written for her and that she has premiered. Her collaboration with mezzo Mary Nessinger has led to multiple commissions of vocal/piano music inspired by classic repertoire that the Duo has developed under their “Cycles & Sequels” concept. Currently, Ms. Golan is focussed on the complete solo Piano Sonatas of Viktor Ullmann, a leading composer of the 1930’s and ‘40’s who was interned by the Nazis in Theresienstadt and later executed at Auschwitz. She appeared at the Ravinia Festival in a program hosted by James Conlon to perform this repertoire and her recording of the Complete Sonatas is available under the Steinway & Sons/ArkivMusic Label.

Ms. Golan earned her Masters and Doctorate of Musical Arts degrees from the Eastman School of Music. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University graduating with Distinction in Music. She is a Professor of Music at SUNY/Nassau, where she has received the Faculty Distinguished Achievement Award and the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Artistry and Scholarship on multiple occasions.

Ms. Golan has made several solo and collaborative recordings under the Albany, Arsis, Capstone, Newport Classic and Steinway & Sons labels. Her solo CD Time Tracks was described by Stereo Review as “an imaginative collection (that is) one of the nicest surprises of the season.” American Record Guide found American Tonal to be an “attractive program… vividly recorded and sensitively played.” Schumann Piano Music: The Poet Speaks, is described by American Record Guide as “very beautiful…her command of color make them a pleasure to hear” while Fanfare finds it “an often-extravagant celebration of Schumann’s mercurial daring.” The Philadelphia Inquirer has found her disk, STEPS: Piano Music of Claude Debussy and Jorge Martin, to have “assured technique and marvelous interpretive insights.” The near-simultaneous release of Innocence Lost and American Handstands elicited the following commentary from Fanfare, “Golan, aside from being a formidable pianist, is one with a deep intellectual and aesthetic curiosity. She is an imaginative and tasteful curator of the programs she presents.”

Jeanne Golan is a Steinway Artist.