Ivesiade

Originally from a small town in central Virginia, American pianist Robert Brooks Carlson began playing piano at the age of eight. Now, Robert performs extensively throughout the United States and Europe as both a recital soloist and chamber musician. Recent highlights feature guest appearances at the Seattle International Piano Festival and Randolph College, as well as multiple appearances for Music in Midtown in Manhattan.

Notable collaborations include performances alongside clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein, violinist Alexi Kenney, cellist Jennifer Culp, pianist Julio Elizalde, and violist Vicki Powell. Recently, he has appeared at Music Academy of the West, Olympic Music Festival, and the Gilmore Piano Festival.

Currently, Robert resides in New York City where he is a Doctor of Musical Arts student at the CUNY Graduate Center, adjunct faculty of music at Hunter College, and a student of Soyeon Kate Lee. Notable recent influences include Jeremy Denk, Conor Hanick, and Julio Elizalde, and previous full-time teachers include Paulo Steinberg, Emily Yap Chua and Nicholas Ross. Prior to his studies in New York City, Robert received degrees from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and James Madison University. In his free time, Robert enjoys baking, coffee, and relaxing with his cat, Olive.

Pianist Conor Hanick is regarded as one of his generation’s most inquisitive interpreters of music new and old whose “technical refinement, color, crispness and wondrous variety of articulation benefit works by any master.” (New York Times) Hanick has recently performed with the San Francisco Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Alabama Symphony, Orchestra Iowa, and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, been presented by the Gilmore Festival, New York Philharmonic, Elbphilharmonie, De Singel, Caramoor, Cal Performances, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and the Park Avenue Armory, and worked with conductors Esa-Pekka Salonen, Ludovic Morlot, Alan Gilbert, and David Robertson. A fierce advocate for the music of today, Hanick has premiered over 200 pieces and collaborated with composers ranging from Pierre Boulez, Kaija Saariaho, and Steve Reich, to the leading composers of his generation, including Nico Muhly, Caroline Shaw, Tyshawn Sorey, Samuel Carl Adams, and Anthony Cheung. This season Hanick presents recitals in the US and Europe, including performances with Julia Bullock, Jay Campbell, Joshua Roman, Seth Parker Woods, AMOC* (American Modern Opera Company), and the Takt Trio. Hanick also makes his San Francisco Performances debut at Herbst Theater, joins Sandbox Percussion at 92NY, returns to the Aix-en-Provence Festival, and, in Ojai as part of the California Festival, performs a new set of piano etudes by Samuel Carl Adams, whose piano concerto No Such Spring Hanick premiered last year to wide acclaim with the San Francisco Symphony and Esa-Pekka Salonen. Hanick is the director of Solo Piano at the Music Academy of the West and serves on the faculty of The Juilliard School, Mannes College, and the CUNY Graduate Center, and is a founding member of AMOC*.