Eric Himy

Eric Himy is an American-born classical pianist of French-Spanish-Moroccan descent.

Life

Born in Brooklyn, NY, Himy began piano studies at age six, giving his first concert at age 10. He was guest soloist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at age 15, and at 19 he made his National Symphony Orchestra debut under Hugh Wolf going on to win numerous competitions and awards including the Gold Medal at the 1988 World Piano Competition in Cincinnati, the Kosciuszko Chopin Prize in New York, and top honors in the 1991 Milosz Magin International Competition in Paris.

Education

Studying both biochemistry and music at the University of Maryland with Thomas Schumacher (disciple of Robert Goldsand, himself a student of Moritz Rosenthal), Himy later received a Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School in New York working with Adele Marcus (disciple of Arthur Schnabel and Josef Lhevinne) and Joseph Villa (disciple of Olga Barabini and Claudio Arrau). He has also given masterclasses at Princeton University, The University of Texas, The University of San Francisco, Portland State University, The University of Virginia and The University of Utah, among others.

Piano playing

The New York Times described his playing as "flawlessly poised, elegant, and brilliant."
Praised for his formidable technique and many varied colors (His technique has been compared by the 2007 Revue Musicale de Suisse Romande to that of the legendary pianist Vladimir Horowitz and called him " a sensual gourmand of sound ") he has received critical acclaim for his interpretations of Transcriptions (including some of his own), French, Spanish and Romantic music. Himy has given recitals in the United States, Canada, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Italy, Mexico, Monaco, Morocco, Panama, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, and Slovenia. He has performed notably at Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, Carnegie Recital Hall, The Frick Collection, The Phillips Collection, Salle Cortot and Salle Gaveau in Paris and on NPR "Performance Today". In 2000, Himy gave an all-Ravel tribute re-creating historic performances given by Cortot and Gieseking. And in France the performance was compared to those of Argerich and François. In 2001, he performed in world premiere several compositions by French composer Yves Ramette, which have been edited on CD (MMC records).

In 2003 Himy released an all-Ravel CD described by the BBC as one of the finest Ravel CDs ever made. He also recorded the Rhapsody in Blue in an all-Gershwin CD which features Gershwin transcriptions of his own and those of Earl Wild. His latest CDs (Mozart, Schumann [picked by BBC Magazine December 2007 issue as CD of the month]) were released in 2007 and two more CDs of Debussy and Liszt, recorded on the exclusive Steingraeber & Sohne piano, were released in Fall 2008. Classics Today 2009 wrote: "Himy's big, luscious sonority and splendid ear for tone color suit Debussy's keyboard aesthetic to perfection with marvelous textural control in his effective transcription of the Prélude à l'après-midi d'une faune and the other selections are intriguingly spacious, luxuriant, and soft-grained.”

Eric Himy was featured on the cover of the 2006 May/June issue of Clavier and in the June 2007 of the UK Musical Opinion. For the ‘06-07, '07-08 season he performed more than 70 concerts worldwide. Mr. Himy was invited by the Bernstein family to celebrate the 90th anniversary tribute to Leonard Bernstein in a gala concert held at the 2008 Lukas Foss Music Festival in the Hamptons.In 2010, he performed on MPR for the Chopin 200th anniversary and also at the 2010 Marienbad Chopin Festival in the Czech Republic and performed over 30 concerts in Brazil, Puerto Rico, (Bayreuth), Germany, France, and the United States. 2011 opened with a concert in Malta at the Teatru Manoel and for the rest of the year he performed many Liszt programs for the Liszt 200th anniversary including a concert at Carnegie Recital Hall. In 2012, Mr. Himy performed in Pietrasanta Italy with violinist Michael Guttman, cellist Wendy Sutter and baritone Stephen Salters in an all-American program which featured some of Himy’s acclaimed “Gershwin in Paris”.

Selected discography

References

External links

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