Pianists Ursula Oppens & Jerome Lowenthal To Return To Brooklyn’s Bargemusic, November 8, 2026

The highly-regarded pianist Ursula Oppens, called “the modest queen of contemporary music” by Zachary Woolfe in The New York Times, will appear with noted pianist Jerome Lowenthal in recital at Brooklyn’s Bargemusic (10 Montague St, Brooklyn, NY 11201), Sunday afternoon, November 8, 2026 at 2 pm. The two pianists will present a program that features both solo piano repertoire and works for piano four hands. The details of the full program follow:

Admission is free for this concert. For more information, please visit Bargemusic’s event page.

Ursula Oppens, a legend among American pianists, is widely admired for her original and perceptive readings of new music, but also for her knowing interpretations of the standard repertoire. No other artist alive today has commissioned and premiered more new works for the piano that have entered the permanent repertoire. Over the years, Ms. Oppens has premiered works by such leading composers as John Adams, Luciano Berio, Anthony Braxton, Elliott Carter, John Corigliano, John Harbison, Julius Hemphill, Conlon Nancarrow, Charles Wuorinen, as well as many more.

“Titan of the contemporary keyboard, Ursula Oppens is a rarity among artists living today,” wrote Adam Sherkin in The Whole Note, September 21, 2021. “She is the stalwart bearer of a mid-century musical torch that apparently burns eternal. How fortunate we are to have such musicians as Oppens still making music with fortitude, passion and tireless faith.”

A prolific recording artist with five Grammy nominations to her credit, Ms. Oppens is renowned for her cult classic The People United Will Never Be Defeated by the late iconoclastic composer Frederic Rzewski. That 1979 release, for the Vanguard label, marked her first Grammy nomination. In 2016 she put out a new recording of The People United Will Never Be Defeated, also nominated for a Grammy, and earlier Grammy nominations were for Winging It: Piano Music of John Corigliano; Oppens Plays Carter; a recording of the complete piano works of Elliott Carter for Cedille Records (also named a “Best of the Year” selection by long-time New York Times music critic Allan Kozinn); and Piano Music of Our Time featuring compositions by John Adams, Elliott Carter, Julius Hemphill, and Conlon Nancarrow for the Music and Arts label. Ms. Oppens released Fantasy: Oppens plays Kaminsky in 2021 for the Cedille label. She also recorded Piano Songs, a collaboration with Meredith Monk, as well as a two-piano CD for Cedille Records devoted to Visions de l’Amen of Oliver Messiaen and Debussy’s En blanc et noir performed with pianist Jerome Lowenthal.

As an orchestral guest soloist, Ms. Oppens has performed with virtually all the world’s major orchestras; highlights include the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Berlin Symphony, and London Philharmonic Orchestras. Ms. Oppens is also an avid chamber musician, performing with the Arditti, Juilliard, and Pacifica quartets, among others.

Ms. Oppens joined the faculty of Mannes College in fall 2017, and is a Distinguished Professor of Music at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City.

Born in 1932, pianist Jerome Lowenthal continues to fascinate audiences with his combination of youthful intensity and eloquence born of life-experience. He is a virtuoso of the fingers and emotions.

Mr. Lowenthal made his New York Philharmonic debut in 1963, playing Bartok’s Second Piano Concerto. Since then, he has performed virtually everywhere, from the Aleutians to Zagreb. He has appeared as soloist with celebrated conductors including Barenboim, Ozawa, Tilson Thomas, Temirkanov, and Slatkin, and with such giants of the past as Bernstein, Ormandy, Monteux, and Stokowski. Mr. Lowenthal has played sonatas with Itzhak Perlman; piano duos with Ronit Amir (his late wife), Carmel Lowenthal (his daughter), and Ursula Oppens; and quintets with the Lark, Avalon, and Brentano Quartets. He has recorded Two-Piano Music of Messiaen and Debussy with Oppens and Liszt’s complete Annés De Pélerinage on a 3-CD set. Other recordings include concertos by Tchaikovsky and Liszt, solo works by Sinding and Bartók, and chamber music by Arensky and Taneyev.

Mr. Lowenthal studied in his native Philadelphia with Olga Samaroff-Stokowski, in New York with William Kapell and Edward Steuermann, and in Paris with Alfred Cortot, meanwhile traveling annually to Los Angeles for coachings with Artur Rubinstein. After winning prizes in three international competitions (Bolzano, Darmstadt, and Brussels), he moved to Jerusalem where he played, taught, and lectured for three years.

Teaching is an important part of Mr. Lowenthal’s musical life, including 20 years at the Juilliard School and 42 summers at the Music Academy of the West. Mr. Lowenthal has worked with an extraordinary number of gifted pianists, whom he encourages to understand the music they play in a wide aesthetic and cultural perspective — and to project it with the freedom which that perspective allows.

For further information, please contact Hemsing Associates at (212) 772-1132 or visit www.hemsingpr.com.

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