Steven Mayer
Professor, Piano
303-871-6400 (Office)
http://tinyurl.com/StevenMayerPiano
Newman Performing Arts Center, 2344 East Iliff Ave. Denver, CO 80208
What I do
Professor of Piano, Chamber Music Coach, Performing and Recording ArtistProfessional Biography
Credited by The New York Times with "piano playing at its most awesome," American pianist Steven Mayer is one of the most versatile and moving performers of his generation. Winner of the Grand Prix International du Disque Liszt for his ASV recording of Liszt Concertos with the London Symphony Orchestra, Mayer has been a soloist with many of the world's leading orchestras and conductors. His CDs and videos of both classical music and jazz on the Naxos, Chandos, Presto, Leonarda and Dimension Media labels enjoy worldwide acclaim.
An ardent pedagogue, Mayer has attracted students from the Juilliard School (https://www.du.edu/news/lamont-welcomes-virtuoso-first-juilliard-master-music-piano-graduate), the Royal College of Music in London, and Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, among others, to study under his tutelage at the Lamont School of Music. Students from Mayer's studio have won the 1st Prize in Lamont's annual Honors Competition, both in solo and chamber music, in a record 7 of the last 14 years. His students have won prizes in international competitions and have been admitted to some of the most prestigious doctoral programs in the US and Canada. Mayer regularly conducts masterclasses at such schools as the Universitat der Kunste Berlin, the Royal Danish Conservatory in Copenhagen, the Jacobs School of Music, the New England Conservatory, and the Butler School at the University of Texas at Austin.
Steven Mayer is prizewinner in the Busoni International Competition, the Gina Bachauer International Competition, and the Carnegie Hall International American Music Competition. He has been soloist with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in Liszt's Concerto in Eb Major, the Prague Symphony in Dvorak's Piano Concerto, the Vienna Academy Orchestra in Liszt's De Profundis, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra in Beethoven's Concerto No.3, the Hague Philharmonic in Max Reger's Piano Concerto, the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra in Haydn's Concerto in G Major, the San Francisco Symphony in Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, the Boston Pops in Liszt's Totentanz, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in Mozart's Concerto K.595, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in Mozart's Concertos K.414 and K.482, the Minnesota Orchestra in Gottschalk's Grand Tarantelle, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in Ravel's Concerto in G Major, the American Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven's Concerto No.4 and the American Composer's Orchestra in Leon Kirchner's Concerto No.2.
As a collaborative musician, Steven Mayer has performed regularly at prestigious chamber music venues including Het Reizend Muziekgezelschap of Amsterdam, Canada's Banff Centre, Brooklyn's Bargemusic, the San Diego Mainly Mozart Festival, the Moab Music Festival, the Bay Chamber Festival of Maine, and many others. In 2021, the Gina Bachauer International Foundation produced "Color and Synthesis," a lecture demonstration film on Franck's Sonata for Violin and Piano, featuring Mayer in collaboration with violinist Igor Pikayzen.
Gramophone magazine wrote of Steven Mayer's Naxos CD of jazz icon Art Tatum, "you could be hearing the great man himself." Mayer has brought his unique repertoire of jazz greats Jelly Roll Morton, James P. Johnson and Fats Waller – alongside Mozart, Chopin and Liszt – to thousands of listeners worldwide. PBS televised Mayer's widely acclaimed performance of Art Tatum's Tiger Rag, among other solos, in a one-hour program which may be seen on YouTube. Gramophone voted Mayer's Naxos CD of Charles Ives' Concord Sonata as one of the top 3 recordings of this iconic work out of a field of over 30.
As a noted Lisztian, Mayer gave the world premiere of Liszt's recently discovered De Profundis for piano and orchestra with Holland's Residentie Orkest in the Hague, as well as the European premiere of Liszt's Concerto Opus Posthumous at France's La Chaise Dieu festival. For the Wagner bicentennial in 2013, Mayer performed a recital of Liszt's Wagner Transcriptions at Tribschen, Wagner's Swiss villa overlooking Lake Lucerne. In 2015, Mayer was one of 3 pianists to perform Liszt's complete works for piano and orchestra with Vienna's Academy Orchestra at Liszt's birthplace in Raiding, Austria.
An ardent pedagogue, Mayer has attracted students from the Juilliard School (https://www.du.edu/news/lamont-welcomes-virtuoso-first-juilliard-master-music-piano-graduate), the Royal College of Music in London, and Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, among others, to study under his tutelage at the Lamont School of Music. Students from Mayer's studio have won the 1st Prize in Lamont's annual Honors Competition, both in solo and chamber music, in a record 7 of the last 14 years. His students have won prizes in international competitions and have been admitted to some of the most prestigious doctoral programs in the US and Canada. Mayer regularly conducts masterclasses at such schools as the Universitat der Kunste Berlin, the Royal Danish Conservatory in Copenhagen, the Jacobs School of Music, the New England Conservatory, and the Butler School at the University of Texas at Austin.
Steven Mayer is prizewinner in the Busoni International Competition, the Gina Bachauer International Competition, and the Carnegie Hall International American Music Competition. He has been soloist with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in Liszt's Concerto in Eb Major, the Prague Symphony in Dvorak's Piano Concerto, the Vienna Academy Orchestra in Liszt's De Profundis, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra in Beethoven's Concerto No.3, the Hague Philharmonic in Max Reger's Piano Concerto, the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra in Haydn's Concerto in G Major, the San Francisco Symphony in Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, the Boston Pops in Liszt's Totentanz, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in Mozart's Concerto K.595, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in Mozart's Concertos K.414 and K.482, the Minnesota Orchestra in Gottschalk's Grand Tarantelle, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in Ravel's Concerto in G Major, the American Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven's Concerto No.4 and the American Composer's Orchestra in Leon Kirchner's Concerto No.2.
As a collaborative musician, Steven Mayer has performed regularly at prestigious chamber music venues including Het Reizend Muziekgezelschap of Amsterdam, Canada's Banff Centre, Brooklyn's Bargemusic, the San Diego Mainly Mozart Festival, the Moab Music Festival, the Bay Chamber Festival of Maine, and many others. In 2021, the Gina Bachauer International Foundation produced "Color and Synthesis," a lecture demonstration film on Franck's Sonata for Violin and Piano, featuring Mayer in collaboration with violinist Igor Pikayzen.
Gramophone magazine wrote of Steven Mayer's Naxos CD of jazz icon Art Tatum, "you could be hearing the great man himself." Mayer has brought his unique repertoire of jazz greats Jelly Roll Morton, James P. Johnson and Fats Waller – alongside Mozart, Chopin and Liszt – to thousands of listeners worldwide. PBS televised Mayer's widely acclaimed performance of Art Tatum's Tiger Rag, among other solos, in a one-hour program which may be seen on YouTube. Gramophone voted Mayer's Naxos CD of Charles Ives' Concord Sonata as one of the top 3 recordings of this iconic work out of a field of over 30.
As a noted Lisztian, Mayer gave the world premiere of Liszt's recently discovered De Profundis for piano and orchestra with Holland's Residentie Orkest in the Hague, as well as the European premiere of Liszt's Concerto Opus Posthumous at France's La Chaise Dieu festival. For the Wagner bicentennial in 2013, Mayer performed a recital of Liszt's Wagner Transcriptions at Tribschen, Wagner's Swiss villa overlooking Lake Lucerne. In 2015, Mayer was one of 3 pianists to perform Liszt's complete works for piano and orchestra with Vienna's Academy Orchestra at Liszt's birthplace in Raiding, Austria.
Degree(s)
- BM, Juilliard School of Music
- DMA, Manhattan School of Music
- MM, Juilliard School of Music
Performances
. (2021). Charles Ives' America. National Education Association, Washington, DC.
. (2021). Color and Synthesis: Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation's On-Demand Concert. Gina Bachauer International Foundation, Salt Lake City, UT.
. (2020). The Black Virtuoso Tradition. New England Piano Teacher's Association, Boston, MA.
