The UMKC Conservatory is pleased to welcome Henry Kramer, Assistant Teaching Professor of Piano for the 2017–18 academic year. He recently completed a two-year residency as the Iva Dee Hiatt Visiting Artist in Piano at Smith College.
Kramer holds both a master's and bachelor's degree from The Juilliard School and an Artist Diploma from the Yale School of Music, where he received the Charles S. Miller Prize for the most outstanding first-year pianist. He is currently completing his doctoral studies at Yale. Henry will teach applied piano, chamber music, and graduate keyboard literature at the Conservatory.
As the winner of the Second Prize at the 2016 Queen Elisabeth Competition and the 2015 William Petschek Recital Debut Award from The Juilliard School, pianist Henry Kramer is establishing himself as one of the most exciting American musicians of his generation. His performances have been praised by critics as “triumphant” and “thrilling” (The New York Times), and “technically effortless” (La Presse, Montreal). A Maine native, Mr. Kramer has also earned top prizes in the 2015 Honens International Piano Competition, the 2011 Montreal International Music Competition, and the 6th China Shanghai International Piano Competition. He was also a prizewinner in the 8th National Chopin Competition in Miami and received the 2014 Harvard Musical Association Arthur Foote Award. He is a winner of Astral’s 2014 National Auditions.
Henry has been invited to play with orchestras across the globe including the National Belgian Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, Calgary Philharmonic, Shanghai Philharmonic, Bilkent Symphony Orchestra in Ankara, Turkey, the Portland (Maine) Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Métropolitain du Montreal, and the Yale Philharmonia. He has soloed under the batons of preeminent conductors Marin Alsop, Jan Pascal Tortelier, and Stéphane Dénève. Upcoming, Mr. Kramer is featured in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the National Orchestra of Belgium and Hans Graf, and in Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional in the Dominican Republic. This season he also returns to Symphony in C for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 and for a chamber music program with the Orchestra of St. Luke's Chamber Players.
In past seasons, Mr. Kramer has been a guest performer in recitals at Portland Piano International (Oregon), The Cliburn Foundation, and the National Chopin Foundation in Miami and in important venues such as Carnegie Hall (Zankel and Wiell) and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. He recently performed Rachmaninov’s Concerto No. 2 with the Eastern Connecticut Symphony and Toshi Shimada, as well as Beethoven’s Chorale Fantasy with Robert Moody and the Portland Symphony Orchestra. Deeply committed to the chamber music repertoire, he has been featured in performances at Lincoln Center, and has participated in the Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival, La Jolla Music Society’s Summerfest, Music@Menlo’s International Program, and the Verbier Festival Academy, where he was awarded the Tabor Prize in piano. Recently, he appeared on Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute tour, which included performances at Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and New York’s Morgan Library, as well as an unprecedented appearance in Havana, Cuba, as a cultural ambassador.