SAN FRANCISCO, CA – The San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) today announces the appointment of Grammy Award-winning pianist Garrick Ohlsson to its faculty. Awarded an honorary doctorate from the Conservatory in 2016, Ohlsson joins current SFCM piano department faculty members Yoshikazu Nagai (Chair), Jon Nakamatsu, Paul Hersh, Sharon Mann, and Corey McVicar. Ohlsson will begin teaching a studio comprised of graduate students at SFCM in Fall 2018. He will also engage in piano department activities including forums, master classes, and recitals as well as interdepartmental collaborations. Ohlsson will be a featured performer at SFCM’s Centennial Gala on March 19, 2018.
“Garrick Ohlsson is a rare individual,” says SFCM President David H. Stull. “His inspirational work as an artist is only matched by his stunning capacity as a teacher. Garrick brings a humanity and empathy to his work that liberates the unique voice of each person fortunate enough to study with him. I am honored and thrilled to welcome him to our faculty and look forward to his many contributions to our school.”
“I’m very excited to join SFCM’s piano faculty next fall,” says Garrick Ohlsson. “Now is a particularly rewarding time at SFCM with its outstanding growth and the increasingly high level of music-making among the students. I’ve done many master classes, there and elsewhere, which have allowed only short amounts of time with students. Taking on full-time students will be much more in depth, and, I hope, even more rewarding. I was enriched by great teachers and wish to impart a little knowledge, one-on-one, of what I received and what I have developed in the ensuing years.”
A recipient of such prestigious awards as the Avery Fisher Prize and top prizes at the International Chopin Piano Competition (still the only American to have ever been awarded the Gold Medal), Busoni Competition, and Montreal Competition, Garrick Ohlsson is regarded as one of the world’s premier pianists performing today. A student of the late Claudio Arrau, Ohlsson has come to be noted for his masterly performances of the works of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, as well as the Romantic repertoire. To date he has at his command more than 80 concertos, ranging from Haydn and Mozart to works of the 21st century, many commissioned for him. He won a Grammy for the third volume of his ten-disc set of the complete Beethoven Sonatas released on Bridge Records. He can also be heard on the Arabesque, RCA Victor Red Seal, Angel, BMG, Delos, Hänssler, Nonesuch, Telarc, Hyperion, and Virgin Classics labels.
Ohlsson is considered one of the world’s leading exponents of the music of Frédéric Chopin and frequently performs works from by composers from a range of musical eras including Mozart, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Scriabin, Barber, and many more. He has collaborated with such eminent chamber ensembles as the Cleveland, Emerson, and Tokyo string quartets and has performed with the most recognized orchestras in the world’s cultural capitals.
Garrick Ohlsson makes his home in San Francisco.
