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, 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, Los Angeles, Rotterdam and Israel philharmonics; the Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras; the San Francisco Symphony and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. He is also a popular figure at all of the major US 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 Takács 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; the Philadelphia Orchestra; the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; the Academy of St. Martin 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 has previously served as music director of the Colorado and Santa Rosa symphonies. He has received tremendous critical acclaim for his innovative programming and commitment to education and community involvement with all three orchestras. He has received ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming for his work in both Los Angeles and Denver.

In addition to his programs and projects with LACO, recent 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 US recital tour with violinist Daniel Hope and an appearance with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. His recent European engagements include play/conduct programs with the Camerata Salzburg and Hamburg Symphony.

Highlights of his 2011–12 season include concerto performances with the Indianapolis, Oregon and Colorado symphonies and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra; play/conduct programs with the New York Philharmonic and the Vancouver, Seattle, New Jersey, Omaha and Santa Rosa symphonies; his debut conducting with Juilliard Orchestra at Lincoln Center; play/conducting a Beyond the Score program with the Philadelphia Orchestra; and a solo/chamber music program at Walt Disney Concert Hall, presented by the LA Phil in honor of his 15th anniversary as music director of LACO.

Kahane’s recordings as a pianist include works by Gershwin and Bernstein with Yo-Yo Ma (SONY), Paul Schoenfield’s Four Parables with the New World Symphony conducted by John Nelson (Decca/Argo), the Strauss Burleske with the Cincinnati Symphony under Jesús López-Cobos (Telarc) and the complete Brandenburg Concertos (on harpsichord) with the Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra under Helmuth Rilling (Haenssler). He has also recorded the complete works for violin and piano by Schubert with Joseph Swensen (RCA), Bach’s Sinfonias and Partita No. 4 in D major (Nonesuch) and Bernstein’s Age of Anxiety (Virgin Records), which was nominated by Gramophone magazine for its Record of the Year award. Kahane’s recordings as conductor include the Bach violin concertos with Hilary Hahn and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (Deutsche Grammophon).

A native of Los Angeles and a graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Kahane’s early piano studies were with Howard Weisel and Jakob Gimpel. First Prize winner at the 1983 Rubinstein Competition and a finalist at the 1981 Van Cliburn Competition, he received an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1983 and the first Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award in 1987. An avid linguist who reads widely in a number of ancient and modern languages, Kahane earned a Master of Arts 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.

September 2011

photo Michael Burke