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 regularly appears as soloist with leading orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic and the Leipzig Gewandhaus and is also a popular figure at summer festivals including Ravinia, Blossom, Caramoor, Mostly Mozart, Oregon Bach and the Hollywood Bowl. Kahane is equally well known for his collaborations with artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Dawn Upshaw, Joshua Bell and Thomas Quasthoff and regularly appears with the leading chamber ensembles.

Jeffrey 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 in the Fields; Camerata Salzburg; and the Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto, Detroit, St. Louis, Houston, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Dallas and New World symphonies, among others. Currently in his 13th season as music director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and his fifth and final season as music director of the Colorado Symphony, Kahane was also music director of the Santa Rosa Symphony for ten seasons. He has received much recognition for his innovative programming and commitment to education and community involvement with all three groups and received 2007 ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming for his work in both Los Angeles and Denver.

In addition to his programs and projects with LACO and the Colorado Symphony, highlights of Kahane’s 2009-10 season include appearances at the Aspen, Mostly Mozart and Oregon Bach festivals; a concerto performance with the Houston Symphony; conducting Haydn’s Creation with the Utah Symphony and a return to the New York Philharmonic to play/conduct three Mozart concertos.

Jeffrey Kahane’s recordings include works of Gershwin and Bernstein with Yo-Yo Ma for Sony, Paul Schoenfield’s Four Parables with the New World Symphony conducted by John Nelson for Decca/Argo, the Strauss Burleske on Telarc with the Cincinnati Symphony under Jesus Lopez-Cobos, and the complete Brandenburg Concertos (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 No. 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.

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 was also the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1983 and the first Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award in 1987.

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 who lives in Brooklyn, and Annie, a senior at Northwestern University.

photo Michael Burke