Guest Artist Bio
Jeffrey Kahane
Equally at home at the keyboard or on the podium, Jeffrey Kahane has established an international reputation as a truly versatile artist, recognized by audiences around the world for his mastery of a diverse repertoire ranging from Bach, Mozart and Beethoven to Gershwin, Golijov and John Adams.
Since making his Carnegie Hall debut in 1983, Mr. Kahane has given recitals in many of the nation's major music centers including New York, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Atlanta. He appears as soloist with major orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony and Rotterdam Philharmonic, and is also a popular figure at all of the major U.S. summer festivals. Kahane is equally well-known for his collaborations with artists and chamber ensembles such as Yo-Yo Ma, Dawn Upshaw, Joshua Bell, Thomas Quasthoff and the Emerson and Takacs Quartets.
Kahane made his conducting debut at the Oregon Bach Festival in 1988. Since then he has guest conducted orchestras such as the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, Philadelphia Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Academy of St. Martin's in the Fields, and the Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Dallas and New World symphonies, among others. Currently in his 15th season as Music Director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Kahane concluded his tenure as Music Director of the Colorado Symphony in June 2010 and was Music Director of the Santa Rosa Symphony for 10 seasons. He has received much recognition for his innovative programming and commitment to education and community involvement with all three orchestras and received 2007 ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming for his work in both Los Angeles and Denver.
Recent and upcoming engagements include appearances at the Aspen, Mostly Mozart, Ravinia, Blossom and Oregon Bach festivals; concerto performances with the Toronto and Houston symphonies; guest conducting the San Francisco, National and Indianapolis symphonies; a U.S. recital tour with violinist Daniel Hope; and an appearance with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Kahane's recordings include works of Gershwin and Bernstein with Yo-Yo Ma for Sony, the Strauss "Burleske" on Telarc with the Cincinnati Symphony under Jesus Lopez-Cobos, and the complete Brandenburg Concerti (on harpsichord) with the Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra under Helmuth Rilling on the Haenssler label. He has also recorded the complete works for violin and piano by Schubert with Joseph Swensen for RCA, Bach's Sinfonias and Partita #4 in D Major for Nonesuch and Bernstein's "Age of Anxiety" for Virgin Records, which was nominated by Gramophone magazine for their "Record of the Year" award.
He is a native of Los Angeles and a graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. First Prize winner at the 1983 Rubinstein Competition and a finalist at the 1981 Van Cliburn Competition, he was also the recipient of a 1983 Avery Fisher Career Grant and the first Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award in 1987. An avid linguist who reads widely in a number of ancient and modern languages, Mr. Kahane received a Master's Degree in Classics from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2011.
Jeffrey Kahane resides in Santa Rosa with his wife, Martha, a clinical psychologist in private practice. They have two children: Gabriel, a composer, pianist and singer/songwriter and Annie, a dancer and poet.