Richard
Zimdars, Despy Karlas Professor of Music in the School of Music at the
University of Georgia, combines the roles of teacher, scholar, and performer.
His students have won prizes in state and national competitions, have been
awarded the Fulbright Grant for piano study in Germany, and hold college
teaching positions in the United States, Brazil, and South Korea. He has given master classes at London’s
Royal Academy of Music, Dublin’s Royal Irish Academy of Music, the Stuttgart
Conservatory, Oberlin Conservatory, and Longy School of Music in Boston. He served as a member of the National
Fulbright Screening Committee for piano applicants in 2006 and 2007.
Zimdars has given solo, concerto, and chamber music concerts and broadcasts in
England, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, and the United States. His performances have received positive
press acclaim in Cologne, Dublin, Heidelberg, New York, Boston, Detroit, St.
Louis, Milwaukee, and Atlanta. He
was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Solo Recitalist Grant, first
prize in the Music Teachers National Association Collegiate Artist Competition,
and a Fulbright Grant for piano study in Germany.
His
recordings on the Bay Cities, Spectrum, ACA, and Albany labels include the four
violin and piano sonatas of Charles Ives, the complete piano music of Roy
Harris, and solo and chamber works of American composers Randall Thompson,
Leslie Bassett, Bernard Heiden, and Claude Baker..
Dr.
Zimdars scholarly pursuits focus on the piano teaching of the late nineteenth
century and American twentieth-century piano literature. His articles on piano literature and
piano pedagogy have appeared in Clavier,
The Piano Quarterly, Journal of the American Liszt Society, and The American Music Teacher. He served on the editorial board of the
last named publication from 2002-05.
Indiana
University Press has published his translations from the German titled The Piano Master Classes of Hans von Bülow
and The Piano Master Classes of Franz
Liszt . He has lectured on the
piano teaching of Franz Liszt in Budapest, Dublin, Canada, and throughout the
United States. He is co-director
of the 2006 American Liszt Festival scheduled for the University of Georgia February
9-11, 2006.
His latest CD, released in July 09 as Albany-Troy 1126, contains Ives' Sonata No. 1, Cowell's 3 Irish Legends, Copland's Piano Variations, and Rudhyar's Pentagram #3. Recent critical response follows:
The Buffalo News, August
9, 2009,Jeff Simon
A brilliant record…an exemplary exploration of the piano music of some
of America’s greatest composers in their greatest and most experimental period.
Not only does pianist Richard Zimdars perform Ives’ mammoth (38-minute) Piano
Sonata No. 1, with his abstraction suddenly bequeathing us the old hymn
“Bringing in the Sheaves” and Henry Cowell’s hugely innovative “Three Irish
Legends” (part of Cowell’s campaign to bring tone clusters and the sound of the
piano’s innards to American music) but the first complete recording of the
“Third Pentagram” of Dane Rudhyar, the marvelous…Scriabinesque composer of
remarkable piano music in this period. Completing the disc is a fine rendering
of Copland’s great Piano Variations of 1930… Zimdars was supremely canny enough
to put it [this repertoire] together.
American Record Guide, Nov/Dec
2009, Sullivan
The high point of this release is…Pentagram No. 3 – Release, a
somber and fascinating work that, as the composer says, treats the piano as a
“miniature orchestra.” Richard Zimdars’ playing is hard, deliberate, a bit
thick in sonority – an impression reinforced by the bass-oriented recording. It
works for the music and is ideal for the Copland, a concise but monumental work
that makes powerful use of overtones and echoes. The way Zimdars ends the piece illustrates his
implacability…
Allmusic website, August
2009, Dave Lewis
Pianist Richard Zimdars…takes on some high-intensity American piano literature…
Bringing these four elements together would not be an easy task for any
pianist; while the Cowell is perhaps "easier" than the others…both
Ives and Rudhyar are notorious for their extreme level of difficulty… What
Zimdars brings to the table in addition to sheer finger fortitude is a fine
sense of scholarship regarding the pieces; his interpretation of this
gargantuan work [Ives Sonata #1] is wonderfully clear… Zimdars does an
exceptional job following the thread of Ives' argument and, on the whole, not getting
bogged down in the details, numerous to the extent of being seemingly
irresoluble. His Copland is crisp, on point, and true to the way Copland
himself played this music; Henry Cowell strove to bring out the unique harmonic
properties of his tone clusters and did not want them to be treated as mere
banging. This requires a special kind of touch, and Zimdars has it; just listen
to his take on The Hero Sun. Rudhyar’s Third Pentagram is well plotted,
expansive, architectonic, and vaguely spiritual in the way it should be.
Richard Zimdars, Piano
Biography
Richard
Zimdars, Despy Karlas Professor of Music in the School of Music at the
University of Georgia, combines the roles of teacher, scholar, and performer.
His students have won prizes in state and national competitions, have been
awarded the Fulbright Grant for piano study in Germany, and hold college
teaching positions in the United States, Brazil, and South Korea. He has given master classes at London’s
Royal Academy of Music, Dublin’s Royal Irish Academy of Music, the Stuttgart
Conservatory, Oberlin Conservatory, and Longy School of Music in Boston. He served as a member of the National
Fulbright Screening Committee for piano applicants in 2006 and 2007.
Zimdars has given solo, concerto, and chamber music concerts and broadcasts in
England, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, and the United States. His performances have received positive
press acclaim in Cologne, Dublin, Heidelberg, New York, Boston, Detroit, St.
Louis, Milwaukee, and Atlanta. He
was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Solo Recitalist Grant, first
prize in the Music Teachers National Association Collegiate Artist Competition,
and a Fulbright Grant for piano study in Germany.
His
recordings on the Bay Cities, Spectrum, ACA, and Albany labels include the four
violin and piano sonatas of Charles Ives, the complete piano music of Roy
Harris, and solo and chamber works of American composers Randall Thompson,
Leslie Bassett, Bernard Heiden, and Claude Baker..
Dr.
Zimdars scholarly pursuits focus on the piano teaching of the late nineteenth
century and American twentieth-century piano literature. His articles on piano literature and
piano pedagogy have appeared in Clavier,
The Piano Quarterly, Journal of the American Liszt Society, and The American Music Teacher. He served on the editorial board of the
last named publication from 2002-05.
Indiana
University Press has published his translations from the German titled The Piano Master Classes of Hans von Bülow
and The Piano Master Classes of Franz
Liszt . He has lectured on the
piano teaching of Franz Liszt in Budapest, Dublin, Canada, and throughout the
United States. He is co-director
of the 2006 American Liszt Festival scheduled for the University of Georgia February
9-11, 2006.
His latest CD, released in July 09 as Albany-Troy 1126, contains Ives' Sonata No. 1, Cowell's 3 Irish Legends, Copland's Piano Variations, and Rudhyar's Pentagram #3. Recent critical response follows:
The Buffalo News, August
9, 2009,Jeff Simon
A brilliant record…an exemplary exploration of the piano music of some
of America’s greatest composers in their greatest and most experimental period.
Not only does pianist Richard Zimdars perform Ives’ mammoth (38-minute) Piano
Sonata No. 1, with his abstraction suddenly bequeathing us the old hymn
“Bringing in the Sheaves” and Henry Cowell’s hugely innovative “Three Irish
Legends” (part of Cowell’s campaign to bring tone clusters and the sound of the
piano’s innards to American music) but the first complete recording of the
“Third Pentagram” of Dane Rudhyar, the marvelous…Scriabinesque composer of
remarkable piano music in this period. Completing the disc is a fine rendering
of Copland’s great Piano Variations of 1930… Zimdars was supremely canny enough
to put it [this repertoire] together.
American Record Guide, Nov/Dec
2009, Sullivan
The high point of this release is…Pentagram No. 3 – Release, a
somber and fascinating work that, as the composer says, treats the piano as a
“miniature orchestra.” Richard Zimdars’ playing is hard, deliberate, a bit
thick in sonority – an impression reinforced by the bass-oriented recording. It
works for the music and is ideal for the Copland, a concise but monumental work
that makes powerful use of overtones and echoes. The way Zimdars ends the piece illustrates his
implacability…
Allmusic website, August
2009, Dave Lewis
Pianist Richard Zimdars…takes on some high-intensity American piano literature…
Bringing these four elements together would not be an easy task for any
pianist; while the Cowell is perhaps "easier" than the others…both
Ives and Rudhyar are notorious for their extreme level of difficulty… What
Zimdars brings to the table in addition to sheer finger fortitude is a fine
sense of scholarship regarding the pieces; his interpretation of this
gargantuan work [Ives Sonata #1] is wonderfully clear… Zimdars does an
exceptional job following the thread of Ives' argument and, on the whole, not getting
bogged down in the details, numerous to the extent of being seemingly
irresoluble. His Copland is crisp, on point, and true to the way Copland
himself played this music; Henry Cowell strove to bring out the unique harmonic
properties of his tone clusters and did not want them to be treated as mere
banging. This requires a special kind of touch, and Zimdars has it; just listen
to his take on The Hero Sun. Rudhyar’s Third Pentagram is well plotted,
expansive, architectonic, and vaguely spiritual in the way it should be.