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ARTISTSArielbiography

P ianist and conductor Stephen Drury has performed throughout the world with a repertoire that stretches from Bach to Liszt to

the music of today. He has appeared at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Barbican Centre and Queen Elizabeth Hall in

London, the Cité de la Musique in Paris, and the Leipzig Gewandhaus, and from Arkansas to Seoul. A champion of contempo-

rary music, he has taken the sound of dissonance into remote corners of Pakistan, Greenland, and Montana.

In 1985, Stephen Drury was chosen by Affiliate Artists for its Xerox Pianists Program and performed in residencies with symphony

orchestras in San Diego, Cedar Rapids, San Angelo, Spokane, and Stamford. He has since performed or recorded with the American

Composers Orchestra, the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Radio Orchestra, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Boston

Philharmonic, the Boston Pops, the Springfield (Massachusetts) and Portland (Maine) Symphony Orchestras, and the Romanian National

Symphony. Drury was a prize-winner in the Carnegie Hall/Rockefeller Foundation Competitions in American Music, and was selected by

the United States Information Agency for its Artistic Ambassador Program and a 1986 European recital tour. A second tour in the fall of

1988 took him to Pakistan, Hong Kong, and Japan. He gave the first piano recitals ever in Julianehaab, Greenland, and Quetta, Pakistan.

In 1989, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded Drury a Solo Recitalist Fellowship which funded residencies and recitals of Ameri-

can music for two years. The same year he was named “Musician of the Year” by the Boston Globe.

Stephen Drury’s performances of music written in the last hundred years, ranging from the piano sonatas of Charles Ives to works by

György Ligeti, Frederic Rzewski and John Cage, have received the highest critical acclaim. Drury has worked closely with many of

the leading composers of our time, including Cage, Ligeti, Rzewski, Steve Reich, Olivier Messiaen, John Zorn, Luciano Berio, Helmut

Lachenmann, Christian Wolff, Jonathan Harvey, Michael Finnissy, Lee Hyla and John Luther Adams. Drury has appeared at the MusikTri-

ennale Köln in Germany, the Subtropics Festival in Miami, and the North American New Music Festival in Buffalo as well as at Roulette,

the Knitting Factory, Tonic and The Stone in New York.

At Spoleto USA, the Angelica Festival in Bologna, and

Oberlin Conservatory, he performed as both conductor

and pianist. He has conducted the Britten Sinfonia in

England, the Santa Cruz New Music Works Ensemble,

and the Harvard Group for New Music. In 1988-89,

he organized a year-long festival of the music of John

Cage which led to a request from the composer to

perform the solo piano part in Cage’s 101, premiered

with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in April 1989.

In 2009, Drury performed the solo piano part in the

Fourth Symphony of Charles Ives, again with the Boston

Symphony Orchestra, under Alan Gilbert. In 1999, Drury

was invited by choreographer Merce Cunningham to

perform onstage with Cunningham and Mikhail Bar-

ishnikov as part of the Lincoln Center Festival. Drury

has also appeared in New York at Alice Tully Hall as

part of the Great Day in New York Festival and on the

Bargemusic series, in Boston with the Boston Symphony

Chamber Players and as soloist with the Boston Modern PHOTO BY LISA KOHLER

STEPHEN DRURYpiano

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ARTISTSAriel

Orchestra Project, and with the Seattle Chamber Players in Seattle and Moscow at the International Music Festival “Images of Contem-

porary American Music.” In 2003, he performed and taught at the Mannes College of Music’s Beethoven Institute; in 2005, he returned

to Mannes to play and teach at the Institute and Festival for Contemporary Performance. That summer, he was also the piano faculty at

the Bang on a Can Summer Institute. In 2006, Drury’s performance of Frederic Rzewski’s “The People United Will Never Be Defeated!”

at the Gilmore Keyboard Festival was a sensation; he was invited back in 2008 to premiere Rzewski’s Natural Things with the Opus 21

Ensemble at the Gilmore Festival in Michigan and Carnegie’s Zankel Hall in New York as part of the composer’s 70th birthday. That same

summer Drury appeared at Bard College’s SUMMERSCAPE Festival, and at the Cité de la Musique in Paris for a week-long celebration

of the music of John Zorn. In 2007, he was invited to León, Mexico to perform music by Rzewski, Zorn, and Cage at the International

Festival of Contemporary Art.

Drury has commissioned new works for solo piano from John Cage, John Zorn, John Luther Adams, Terry Riley, and Chinary Ung with

funding provided by Meet The Composer. He has performed with Zorn in Paris, Vienna, London, Brussels, and New York, and conducted

Zorn’s music in Bologna, Boston, Chicago, and in the UK and

Costa Rica. In March of 1995, he gave the first performance of

Zorn’s concerto for piano and orchestra Aporias with Dennis Rus-

sell Davies and the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra. Later

that same season he gave the premiere of Basic Training for solo

piano, written for him by Lee Hyla. Drury has recorded the music

of John Cage, Elliott Carter, Charles Ives, Karlheinz Stockhau-

sen, Colin McPhee, John Zorn, John Luther Adams and Frederic

Rzewski, as well as works of Liszt and Beethoven, for Mode, New

Albion, Catalyst, Tzadik, Avant, MusicMasters, Cold Blue, New

World and Neuma.

Stephen Drury has given masterclasses at the Moscow Tchai-

kovsky Conservatory, Mannes Beethoven Institute, and Oberlin

Conservatory, and in Japan, Romania, Argentina, Costa Rica,

Denmark, and throughout the United States, and served on

juries for the Concert Artist Guild, Gaudeamus and Orléans Con-

cours International de Piano XXème Siècle Competitions. Drury

is artistic director and conductor of the Callithumpian Consort,

and he created and directs the Summer Institute for Contem-

porary Performance Practice (SICPP) at New England Conser-

vatory. Drury earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard

College, and has also earned the New England Conservatory’s

select Artist Diploma. His teachers have included Claudio Arrau,

Patricia Zander, William Masselos, Margaret Ott, and Theodore

Lettvin. He teaches at New England Conservatory, where he has

directed festivals of the music of John Cage, Steve Reich, and

Christian Wolff.

biography (cont.)

PHOTO BY LISA KOHLER

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ARTISTSAriel

ULTIMATE MONUMENTS OF THE TRADITION

Beethoven, Sonata Op. 106 “Hammerklavier”

Helmut Lachenmann, Serynade (1998)

This program features two great monuments of the highest, most

visionary tradition in classical music. Beethoven and Lachenmann,

two composers separated by over a century and bound together

by the great German classical tradition, are represented by their

ultimate, most personal statements for the piano, each expand-

ing the capabilities of the art and re-defining the very meaning of

music. Beethoven, digging deep into and exploding the most tra-

ditional of classical forms, creates a new archetype which will have

repercussions throughout the following 200 years of composition,

whereas Lachenmann reifies the very soul of the piano, creating a

previously unimaginable resonance which seems to hover some-

where above the instrument. Combining violence and tranquility

into a new image of human meaning, these works demand the

ultimate virtuosity of both technique and interpretation.

JOHN CAGE 100TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

Recital I - a survey of Cage’s re-creation of the piano

A Valentine out of Season

The Seasons

Music for Piano

Winter Music

Solo from Concert for Piano and Orchestra

Variations III

Etudes Borealis

Swinging or Perpetual Tango

Recital II – the landmarks of Cage’s career

In A Landscape

Etudes Australes – selections

Cheap Imitation

John Cage did more to revolutionize the possibilities for making

art in the 20th century than any other artist, musician, painter, or

poet. He changed forever the way we listen and look, inventing

new instruments and hearing music where others heard only noise

– or silence. These two recitals each celebrate the vast scope,

influence, and profound wisdom of the music Cage created for

the piano, his primary and most personal instrument. Stephen

Drury is widely known as the leading interpreter of Cage’s piano

music, having worked with the composer and recorded a num-

ber of his most important works.

THE AMERICAN MUSICAL GENIUS

Charles Ives, Piano Sonata No. 2, “Concord, Mass. 1840 – 1860”

Carl Ruggles, Evocations

John Zorn, Carny

John Cage, Etudes Australes

Christian Wolff, Hay Una Mujer Desaparecida

Stephen Drury identifies the four great strands of the Ameri-

can musical genius – the ecstatically mystical, the profoundly

comic, the social narrative, and the brazenly experimental –

and weaves a program which unifies them all in Charles Ives’s

great masterwork.

program offerings for 2012/13 season

P H O T O B Y A N D R E W H U R L B U T

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ARTISTSAriel

MOZART (1756-1791)Concerto No. 23 in A major, K. 488

Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466

BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 15

Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37

Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73, “Emperor”

Choral Fantasy for Piano, Orchestra and Choir, Op. 80

FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847) Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25

ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810-1856) Concerto in A minor, Op. 54

LISZT (1811-1886) Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major, S. 124

BRAHMS (1833-1897) Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15

EDVARD GRIEG (1843-1907)Concerto in A minor, Op. 16

MAURICE RAVEL (1875-1937)Concerto in G major

Concerto for the Left Hand

MANUEL DE FALLA (1876-1946)Nuits dans les jardins d’Espagne

BARTÓK (1881-1945)Concerto No. 3, Sz. 119

IGOR STRAVINSKY (1882-1971)Concerto for Piano and Wind Orchestra

WALLINGFORD RIEGGER (1885-1961)Variations for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 54

PROKOFIEV (1891-1953)Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26

GEORGE GERSHWIN (1898-1937)Concerto in F major

Rhapsody in Blue

COLIN MCPHEE (1900-1964)Concerto for Piano and Winds

SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975)Concerto No. 1 for Piano, Trumpet and String Orchestra, Op. 35

OLIVIER MESSIAEN (1908-1992)Oiseaux Exotiques

ELLIOTT CARTER (b. 1908)Double Concerto (piano part)

JOHN CAGE (1912-1992)Concerto for Prepared Piano and Chamber Orchestra

Concert for Piano and Orchestra

Fourteen

LEE HYLA (b. 1952)Concerto for Piano and Chamber Orchestra No. 2

JOHN ZORN (b. 1953)Aporias: Requia for Piano and Orchestra

concerto offerings

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ARTISTSArieladditional offerings

PIANO MASTERCLASSES

Stephen Drury has given masterclasses throughout the U.S.,

Latin America, Europe and Asia on both standard and modern

repertoire, with which he is equally comfortable. From the

University of Montana to Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Conservatory, he

has worked with serious piano students of all levels. Drawing on

25 years of experience teaching at New England Conservatory,

extensive work with private students, and summers on the faculty

of Tanglewood, he concentrates on liberating the student’s musical

imagination both by addressing technical obstacles and getting

students to verbalize directly their own thoughts about the music.

LECTURE/DEMONSTRATIONS

Stephen Drury’s explorations of the music of the last 100 years,

particularly that of Charles Ives and John Cage, are rewarding

and inspiring for both novices and those with more experience

listening to new music. With a great deal of the music of these

American masters (and much more) at his fingertips, he both traces

the development of these composers in a clear and personal way

and digs to find the human and profoundly musical spirit of their

revolutionary musical creations.

Stephen Drury introduces the broader arc of new music of the last

century to general audiences, demonstrating the wide range of

special techniques needed by today’s pianists (prepared piano,

playing inside the piano, reading unconventional notation), and

leading in-depth discussions of music he has either premiered

(John Zorn’s Carny and Fay Ce Que Vouldras, Lee Hyla’s Basic

Training) or worked closely on with the composer (John Cage,

Gyorgy Ligeti, Christian Wolff, Frederic Rzewski). He also has

extensive experience working with instrumental ensembles in

contemporary music (he leads both the Callithumpian Consort and

[nec]shivaree, the attack wings of New England Conservatory’s

new music program), and welcomes the opportunity to work with

student ensembles of any makeup.

P H O T O B Y L I S A K O H L E R

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ARTISTSAriel

PIANOFUTURE

Beethoven, Sonata Opus 111 (1822)

Debussy, Etudes for Piano (1915)

Helmut Lachenmann, Serynade (1998)

BRAHMS & RZEWSKI: VARIATIONS

Brahms, Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24

Rzewski, “The People United Will Never Be Defeated!” – 36

Variations on ¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!

GETTING PERSONAL

Debussy, Suite Bergamasque

Helmut Lachenmann, Serynade

Schumann, Davidsbündlertänze

BEETHOVEN AND RZEWSKI

Beethoven, Sonata No. 29 in Bb, Op. 106, “Hammerklavier”

Frederic Rzewski, “The People United Will Never Be Defeated!”

– 36 Variations on ¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!

CHARLES IVES: THE PIANO SONATAS

First Sonata

Three Page Sonata

Piano Sonata No. 2, “Concord, Mass. 1840 – 1860”

GETTING PERSONAL

Debussy, Suite Bergamasque

Helmut Lachenmann, Serynade

Schumann, Davidsbündlertänze

WRITTEN FOR STEPHEN DRURY

John Luther Adams, 4000 Holes (for piano and recorded sounds)

John Zorn, Carny

Zorn, Fay Ce Que Vouldras

Lee Hyla, Basic Training

THE MUSIC OF JOHN CAGE

Cheap Imitation

Etudes Australes (selections)

Sonatas & Interludes (selections)

current & recent solo recital programs (selected)

INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF CONTEMPORARY ART (LEÓN, MEXICO)

John Cage, Seven Haiku

John Zorn, Carny

Frederic Rzewski, “The People United Will Never Be Defeated!”

– 36 Variations on ¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!

SUMMER INSTITUTE FOR CONTEMPORARY PERFORMANCE PRACTICE

Jo Kondo, A Dance for Piano ‘Europeans’

Helmut Lachenmann, Serynade

John Zorn, Fay ce que Vouldras

Toshio Hosokawa, Nacht Klange

FAITH, THE LOSS OF FAITH, AND THE RE-TURN OF FAITH

Liszt, Etudes d’exécution transcendante, S. 139 (selections)

Stockhausen, Klavierstücke IX

Charles Ives, Celestial Railroad

Beethoven, Sonata No. 31 in Ab major, Op. 110

FACULTY RECITAL

Beethoven, Sonata No. 29 in B flat, Op. 106, “Hammerklavier”

John Cage, Winter Music

Ravel, Miroirs

FACULTY RECITAL

Debussy, Etudes, Book 1 and Book 2 (complete)

Alvin Lucier, Music for piano with slow sweep pure wave oscillators

Debussy, Suite bergamasque

FACULTY RECITAL

Helmut Lachenmann, Guero

Morton Feldman, Extensions 3

John Cage, Etudes Australes III, VI

György Ligeti, Etude X: Der Zauberlehrling

Etude XIII: L’escalier du diable

Schumann, Papillons, Op. 2

Ravel, Valses nobles et sentimentales

John Zorn, Carny

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ARTISTSArielrecent concert appearances (selected, 2001-2011)

2011LiveARTS Concert Series, Franklin, MA

NUMUS Piano Festival, Waterloo, ON

Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY

Missouri Western State University, St. Joseph, MO

2010Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY

University of Richmond, Richmond, VA

The Stone, New York, NY

Urban Alchemy Concert Series, St. Louis, MO

2009New England Conservatory, First Monday Series, Boston, MA

Scandinavia House, New York, NY

New Gallery Concert Series, Community Music Center of Boston, MA

Drums Along the Pacific Festival,Cornish School, Seattle, WA

University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO

2008Cité de la Musique, Paris, FRANCE

Sejong Chamber Hall, Sejong Center for the Performing Arts,

Seoul, KOREA

Zankel Hall, New York, NY

New Albion Records at Bard SummerScape Festival, Annadale-

on-Hudson, NY

Santa Fe New Music, Santa Fe, NM

Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL

New Music & Art Festival, Bowling Green State University, Bowl-

ing Green, OH

The Music Gallery, Toronto, CANADA

Gilmore Keyboard Festival, Kalamazoo, MI

Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, WA

Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA

Central Washington University Concert Hall, Ellensburg, WA

2007 Manuel Doblado Theatre, León, MEXICO

University of Mexico School of Music, Mexico City, MEXICO

University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK

2006Bemidji State University, Bemidji, MN

Fromm Festival, Paine Hall, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

2005Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA

Bang on a Can Summer Institute, North Adams, MA

New Music Miami ISCM Festival, Miami, FL

Subtropics Festival, Miami, FL

IFCP (Institute & Festival for Contemporary Performance),

New York, NY

Zeitgeist Gallery, Cambridge, MA

2004Fine Arts Recital Hall, University of Maryland, Baltimore

County, MD)

Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York, NY

San Francisco Conservatory of Music, San Francisco, CA

UC Santa Cruz Recital Hall, Santa Cruz, CA)

2003Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, ENGLAND

Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL

The Mannes Beethoven Institute, Mannes College of Music,

New York, NY

Tonic, New York, NY

Oregon Festival of American Music, Eugene, OR

First Parish Church, Lexington, MA

2002Wilbur Cohen Auditorium, Voice of America Building, Washing-

ton, DC

Merkin Concert Hall, New York, NY

2001 DOM Cultural Centre, Moscow, RUSSIA

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ARTISTSArielrecent concerto performances

BOSTON PHILHARMONICConducted by Benjamin Zander, Boston, MA (2010)

Ravel, Concerto in G major

NEW ENGLAND PHILHARMONICConducted by Richard Pittman, Boston, MA (2009)

Manuel de Falla, Nuits dans les jardins d’Espagne

BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRAConducted by Alan Gilbert, Boston, MA (2009)

Charles Ives, Symphony No. 4 (solo piano part)

JORDAN HALLConducted by Stephen Drury (with the Callithumpian Consort),

Boston, MA (2008)

Carter, Double Concerto (piano part)

THE BOSTON MODERN ORCHESTRA PROJECTConducted by Gil Rose, Boston, MA (2006)

Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue

THE CONCORD ORCHESTRA Conducted by Richard Pittman, Concord, MA (2006)

Ravel, Concerto for the Left Hand

PRO ARTE CHAMBER ORCHESTRAConducted by Isaiah Jackson,

Sanders Theatre, Cambridge, MA (2005)

Shostakovich, Concerto No. 1 for Piano, Trumpet

and String Orchestra, Op. 35

JORDAN WINDSConducted by William Drury, Boston, MA (2004)

Colin McPhee, Concerto for Piano and Winds

GLENS FALLS SYMPHONYConducted by Charles Peltz, Glens Falls, NY (2004)

Ravel, Concerto in G major

SPOKANE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRAConducted by Eckart Preu, Spokane, WA (2004)

Beethoven, Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 15

NEW ENGLAND PHILHARMONICConducted by Richard Pittman,

Tsai Performance Center, Boston, MA (2003)

Wallingford Riegger, Variations for Piano and Orchestra

OBERLIN CONSERVATORY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRAConducted by Timothy Weiss, Oberlin, OH (2002)

John Cage, Concerto for Prepared Piano

and Chamber OrchestraPH

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STEPHEN DRURYpiano

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ARTISTSArielrecent press

FROM THE BOSTON MUSICAL INTELLIGENCER

by David Patterson

October 23, 2010

“Over the din of wholehearted applause following the French com-

poser’s unusual concerto, an avid music fan exclaimed “Wowee! Two

wowees!” It could not have been said better. Piano concerto soloist

Stephen Drury and a smaller Philharmonic beamed a nimbus around

the Ravel. Drury addressed Ravel with pureness and impeccable musi-

cianship. He and Zander, together with the orchestra, musicalized the

concerto in a light at once radiant and indescribable.

The Adagio movement as played by Drury, I would say, may be

the very best I have heard. The waltz-type left hand that continues

throughout the entire slow movement always found purpose with its

right hand in lyrical, arpeggiated, or trilled statements. Notes in the

right hand making dissonances with the left hand, or “enemies,” (as

Zander called them when speaking about Stravinsky) coalesced in

a superbly rayed structure much like that as when the English horn

played by Barbara LaFitte joined the piano.

One of many surprising moments began with piano arpeggios that

were taken up by the harp in glissandos — sheer sonic enchantment.

(Regrettably, the harpist’s name was omitted from the program.) In a

few more words, Benjamin Zander and Boston Philharmonic with Ste-

phen Drury gave unforgettable performances of Gershwin and Ravel.”

FROM BOSTON GLOBE:

by David Weininger

January 20, 2011

“After intermission came Ives’s “Concord’’ Sonata. Ives is a longtime specialty of Drury’s, and it is difficult to imagine a performance of

greater command or authority than this one. Mahler famously said that the symphony needed to encompass the whole world; the sonata

accomplishes that feat, with tone clusters, church hymns, and parlor ballads comingling in a happy chaos.

Lest anyone think that this music now sounds familiar, Drury reminded listeners how thrillingly untamed it really is. The “Hawthorne’’

movement in particular reached moments of riotous intensity. But perhaps the pianist’s greatest achievement was in the quiet “Thoreau’’

movement, which spun out like some kind of mysterious rite, ancient in nature.”

P H O T O B Y P H O T O B Y R O B E RT J K I R K PAT R I C K

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ARTISTSAriel

THE LISTENER CANNOT IMAGINE more persuasive perfor-

mances than the ones Drury played…”

- The New York Times

“DRURY’S PERFORMANCES were magisterial, and each note

was a sounding point of light…”

- The Boston Globe

“THE MOST SCINTILLATING, honest and pianistically impres-

sive performance of Ravel’s demanding ‘Miroirs’ suite I have

ever heard…”

- Boston Review

“DRURY IS A TRUE ORIGINAL whose supremely disciplined

fingers are at the service of a rigorous, questing, imaginative

mind. It is unlikely that the season will hold a piano event more

astonishing than Drury’s performance…”

- The Boston Globe

“STUNNINGLY FRESH and spontaneous…”

- Boston Herald

“DRURY’S IVES REMAINS A SERIOUS CONTENDER for the

year’s most extraordinary keyboard achievement…”

- The Phoenix

“A SENSITIVE, HIGHLY INTELLIGENT MUSICIAN with fire in

his soul…Pianism of tremendous intensity…”

- The Boston Globe

“ASTONISHING! ...none of our important pianists is more

exploratory and versatile. Drury’s magnificent performance left

nothing to chance…”

- The Boston Globe

“DRURY’S PLAYING MASTERFULLY combines a virtuoso tech-

nique, intellectual thoughtfulness, and a commanding sense of

the piano’s tone colors.”

- Travis Rivers, Spokane Spokesman-Review

“[LAST NIGHT] THE INCREASINGLY STUPENDOUS STEPHEN

DRURY played Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G,…It’s not possible

that anyone has played the solo part more flawlessly or with

more beautiful tone. The harder the technical challenges, the

more subtle the colorations Drury creates. You can hear each

note, no matter how many of them are coming at you per sec-

ond, yet the sense of continuity leaves you gasping.”

- Lloyd Schwartz, The Boston Phoenix

“[BEETHOVEN’S] C-MINOR ‘PATHETIQUE’ SONATA is prob-

ably not one that immediately springs to mind when thinking of

Drury, who is the least sentimental of performers. But the pianist

opened the program with it and infused it with much fresh air.

The introductory Grave was gorgeously contemplative, the

succeeding Allegro full of diamond-edged brilliance. The great

Adagio cantabile featured beautifully voiced harmonies and a

rhythmic lilt that precluded any smoochiness. The finale…had a

mercurial dazzle.”

- Ellen Pfeifer, Boston Globe

STEPHEN DRURY, THAT FREEST SPIRIT among pianists, has

recorded a CD no one else could have imagined…Drury is a

superb pianist who enters fully not only into the different sound

world of each piece but also into its personal space, its imagina-

tive territory… There is no one like Stephen Drury, an individual

in a conforming world whose work insists that music matters.”

- Richard Dyer, Boston Globe

“MR. DRURY’S PLAYING IS EXTRAORDINARY. He plays the

entire program with technical command, keen ear for color, vivid

imagination and probing intelligence.”

- Anthony Tommasini, New York Times

“A TOUR-DE-FORCE READING of a contemporary classic

brought a crowd to its feet at yesterday’s Piano and Friends

recital by Stephen Drury.”

- Tucson Citizen

“I CONTINUE TO MARVEL at Stephen Drury’s imagination,

technique, and expressiveness. Drury plays [Cage’s music] some-

times reverently, sometimes mercurially, but always with grace

and serenity.”

- Rob Haskins, American Record Guide

critical praise