Eric LeVan

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Eric LeVan is an American-born pianist of international notoriety. He has been praised by the critics and public alike for his original interpretations of the classical repertoire, notably the music of Brahms and Scriabin.

[edit] Biography

Eric LeVan was born in Los Angeles on June 14, 1964. He was in his early years a student of Earle C. Vorrhies, former pupil of Alexander Siloti. After attending the University of Southern California, he entered the masterclass of Austrian pianist Rudolf Buchbinder at the Music Academy in Basel, Switzerland. Yet as a young artist, he remained an autodidact and a maverick. Interested in literature, history and philosophy, he was also violinist until turning full time to the piano.

In 1988, he moved to Basel, Switzerland, and then to Alsace, France. There he founded the Franz Liszt Festival of which he was artistic director from 1997 to 2003. At the age of 23, his recording career was launched by a first publication of Johannes Brahms' piano music [1]. He was soon acclaimed by critics as a major Brahms interpreter.

In 1998, he recorded Franz Liszt's Complete Works for cello and piano with German cellist Guido Schiefen [2] on the historic “Liszt Flugel” with Arte Nova - BMG. The disc was hailed “Best Chamber Music Recording of the Year 2000" in the Neue Musik Zeitung.[3] Similarly, LeVan's recording of Scriabin's Complete Mazurkas won unanimous praise, notably in the American Record Guide, Gramophone, Fanfare and Clavier Magazine [4]. LeVan is also interested in making lesser-known composers available to the larger public through his recordings, such as Joachim Raff [5], Dussek and Toch.

He has been guest soloist and recitalist in major festivals and venues in the United States and in Europe, most particularly the Weimar Franz Liszt Festival [6] and the International Festival Beethovenfest [7], as well as the Kennedy Center and the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.[8]

He now lives in the United States.