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A Musical Journey Through Connection

An Interview with Pianist Drew Petersen Q: How has winning or being a finalist with the American Piano Awards impacted your career? A: Oh my goodness. Well, this is an easy question to answer. The American Piano Awards really opened my career and my relationship to the Midwest in a way I never expected. Before 2016, the…

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Drew Petersen’s Rach 3 in Charleston Leaves a Big Impression

Thank you to everyone who came out for our second Masterworks performance of the season to see Drew Petersen play Rachmaninoff's 3rd Piano Concerto! We received endless high praise from concert-goers as well as requests to have Drew return. Here are a few of our favorite comments from audience members. For those who were there,…

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Drew Steps In Last-Minute with Rach 3

Fast on the heels of a chamber music recital with faculty at Williams College and a master class with Williams piano students, Drew Petersen is off again. He will step in to perform Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto, often likened to a "Mount Everest" of the piano concerto literature. Two performances with the Charleston Symphony and…

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Eastern Music Festival to Feature Rising Pianist Drew Petersen

The Eastern Music Festival (EMF) announced that 28-year-old American pianist Drew Petersen will step in for Hélène Grimaud as soloist with the Eastern Festival on July 22, 2023. This marks Petersen’s debut with EMF in Greensboro, showcasing his growing reputation as a highly sought-after soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. Source

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Making a splash: Young pianist kicks off Philharmonic’s new season

Here’s to seeing Petersen making a bigger splash in music — including kicking off the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic’s new season Saturday — than he ever did in the water. He most recently won the 2017 American Pianists Awards competition that stretched 13 months. But the part-time graduate student at the prestigious Julliard School in New…

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Recent Releases FROM STEINWAY & SONS

In his young career, American Pianist Drew Petersen has achieved some of the highest musical honors, including top prize from the 2017 American Pianists Awards and a 2018 Avery Fisher Career Grant. This recital, a daunting showcase of American piano works, is a glimpse of his remarkable musicianship. Griffes’ Three Fantasy Pieces, which fuse elements of…

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Drew Petersen Wins 2018 Avery Fisher Career Grant

Petersen will be honored as an Avery Fisher Career Grant reciepient in a ceremony at the Jerome L. Greene Performance Space at WQXR.  The performance will be streamed Live on Facebook at 6pm EDT March 22, 2018 and will be broadcast on 105.9 FM and www.wqxr.org Tuesday, April 24 2018 at 9pm. Source

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Pianist Drew Petersen added to the Roster

Opus 3 Artists is thrilled to welcome the winner of the 2017 American Pianists Awards, Drew Petersen. The captivating, young pianist is also the winner of the Christel DeHaan Fellowship of the American Pianists Association, and has been named Artist-in-Residence for two years by the University of Indianapolis. This is the latest accolade in a decorated…

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Tucson Symphony Orchestra Classical Concert Grieg Piano Concerto

TSO Classical Concert Friday, November 17th 7:30 pm Sunday, November 19th at 2 pm Grieg Piano Concerto Drew Petersen, winner of the 2017 American Pianists Awards and the Christel DeHaan Fellowship of the American Pianists Association, has already achieved an enormous amount at the age of 23, including graduating cum laude from Harvard when he…

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American Pianists Ass’n Winner Hits the Ground Running

"In late September, pianist Drew Petersen began his two-year residency at the University of Indianapolis, part of his award as first place winner of the 2017 American Pianists Association competition, with a recital that put to rest any questions about why he was chosen. The 23-year old virtuoso tackled a range of challenging works from…

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Piano Prodigy Shines Brighter Than Ever… The East Hampton Star

Winner of the American Pianists Award and the Christel DeHaan Fellowship of the American Pianists Association. There may be fewer days at the beach for Drew Petersen, a resident of Springs and Oradell, N.J. In April, at age 23, Mr. Petersen, a prodigy who first performed at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall at age 5, won…

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UIndy Artist-in-Residence Announced

INDIANAPOLIS - The Indianapolis-based American Pianists Association has announced Drew Petersen will serve as the artist-in-residence at the University of Indianapolis. The 23-year-old earned the spot after winning the 2017 American Pianists Awards. UIndy announced the artist-in-residence program in June. Petersen will serve in the role for the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 academic years, during which time he…

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He Strikes A Key Balance… Harvard Gazette

Drew Petersen sits comfortably at a piano, looks briefly at its 88 keys, shuts his eyes, positions his fingers, and plays from memory a complex piece by Frédéric Chopin. Petersen welcomes challenging adventures, musical and otherwise. He enrolled in Harvard’s Extension School at 14, while maintaining a demanding concert schedule. Source

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How Do You Raise a Prodigy? … The New York Times Magazine

Drew Petersen didn’t speak until he was 3½, but his mother, Sue, never believed he was slow. When he was 18 months old, in 1994, she was reading to him and skipped a word, whereupon Drew reached over and pointed to the missing word on the page. Drew didn’t produce much sound at that stage,…

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Acclaim for Drew Petersen

“This young man [Drew Petersen]’s performance of the treacherous Rach 3 was absolutely perfect — tantalizing, bombastic, dreamy, scary, soothing, everything it should be.”

1

“A truly magnificent performance. I don’t believe I’ve ever heard Rachmaninoff played as well. I especially loved the tender touch and emotion that he put into his playing.”

2

“That was an incredible performance tonight! I have never heard Rachmaninoff’s 3rd played so sensitively. He found the nuances I’ve never heard before tonight.”

3

“The rehearsal left me feeling like I was walking on a cloud. Drew IS the music! Extraordinary playing!”

4

“…Pianist Drew Petersen gave a riveting performance of the Gershwin. He found the sweet spot between classical correctness and jazz freedom, using rubato like an expressive, crooning, jazz singer, and tossing in accelerando moments to playful effect in some spots and urgent effect elsewhere.”

— Elaine Schmidt, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

 

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Profile: Drew Petersen Pianist, Winner of Avery Fisher Career Grant

A profile of pianist Drew Petersen, winner of a 2018 Avery Fisher Career Grant Award.

— NYC-ARTS Profile

 

NYC-ARTS Profile

“That is what is so astonishing about Drew…that he feels the music, he can make it come alive again, make you touched by it… That’s what is unusual. That’s what I like about him. He is not just a child prodigy but is a brilliant musician.”

— Lukas Foss, composer, conductor, pianist

 

Lukas Foss

“confident and assured”

— Cathalina Burch, Arizona Daily Star

 

Arizona Daily Star

“Three of the six finalists played Rachmaninov, but only one brought anything fresh or arresting to these overfamiliar works. That was 21-year-old American Drew Petersen, who – inexplicably as far as I’m concerned – only placed fourth; his account of Rachmaninov’s First Concerto was the best of the six performances in the final by some distance, and he perfectly captured the music’s youthful ebullience and glitter.”

— Andrew Clements, The Guardian

 

Andrew Clements

“The 2017 American Pianists Awards’ top prize — carrying a $50,000 cash prize and entailing much career assistance over the next two years as Christel DeHaan Fellow of the American Pianists Association — went Saturday night to Drew Petersen, a 23-year-old from Oradell, New Jersey, and a master’s degree candidate at the Juilliard School. The announcement capped two days of “Gala Finals” with five candidates for the award each playing a major concerto.”

— Jay Harvey, Upstage

 

Jay Harvey Upstage 2017

Young pianist returns and wows them again

“… he plays the music as the composer intended. There is none of the mannered, exaggerated choreography of many of today’s piano virtuosos.”

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— Shelter Island Reporter

Shelter Island Reporter

“…with his playing of Chopin’s Nocturne No. 8 in D-flat major, that the miracle of being a prodigy came wondrously to the fore. It seemed as though Drew Petersen instinctively understood that Chopin was spinning a long, contemplative dream-that the filigree lights and shadows of this hushed work contained the sophisticated languors of a yearning heart.
To hear a 10-year-old boy breathe life and romantic subtlety into so expressive a work, is to encounter the true mystery of what makes so very young a person leap
toward the flames of artistic maturity.”

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— John Jonas Gruen, The East Hampton Star

The East Hampton Star

“It was a kaleidoscope of interpretations that struck the ear most when in April the finalists in the American Pianists Association’s season-long contest played Judith Lang Zaimont’s “Attars,” the commissioned work of this year’s classical piano competition.

And that was just one of the ways in which Drew Petersen made his mark on his way to winning the 2017 contest. Despite my reluctance to choose favorites while a competition is in progress, Petersen had won me over last January with his revelatory performance of Robert Schumann’s problematic “Humoreske.”

— Jay Harvey, Upstage

 

Jay Harvey

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