Frank Dupree

Winning the Assorted Programs category of the International Classical Music Awards (2022) for his recording of Nikolai Kapustin’s Piano Concerto No. 4, Frank Dupree continues to win acclaim both home and abroad as he champions the work of the “Russian in Gershwin’s clothing.” Gramophone also remarked on Frank’s “unrestrained brilliance“ in the recording, and shortlisted it as Concerto Recording of the Year at their 2022 Classical Music Awards.

Originally trained as a jazz percussionist, Frank celebrates the breadth and depth of the piano repertoire, with a particular enthusiasm for the music of living composers, having worked closely with Péter Eötvös (Erdenklavier – Himmelklavier, world premiere recording in 2015 for the GENUIN classics label) and Wolfgang Rihm (Con Piano? Certo!, world premiere performance with conductor Justin Brown and the Badische Staatskapelle Karlsruhe in June 2015).

Dupree recently undertook his long-awaited Royal Albert Hall debut in London, performing Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Other recent highlights include his Paris orchestral debut with the Orchestre National d’Île-de-France, both solo and jazz trio recitals at the PyeongChang Festival in Korea, and other debut appearances with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, Trondheim Symfonieorchester, Sinfonieorcheser Liechtenstein, and at London’s Wigmore Hall, LSO St Luke’s, Tonhalle Zurich, Berlin’s Konzerthaus, Brussels BOZAR, as well as ongoing relationships with the Stuttgart Philharmoniker, Munich Symphony, and Wüttembergerische Kammerorchester Heilbronn.

Recitals and chamber music play a particularly important role in Frank’s musical ethos, and he has frequently collaborated with other rising stars of his generation such as Simon Höfele, Edgar Moreau, Daniel Lozakovich, Timothy Ridout, Kian Soltani, Pablo Barragan, Vivi Vassileva and the Calidore and Goldmund string quartets, giving concerts at such places as the Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, Verbier Festival, Septembre Musical in Montreux, Davos Festival, Heidelberg Spring Festival, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele. Of particular interest are recent collaborations with the Kurt Weill Festival as artist-in-residence and with the Repercussion ensemble at the Cologne Philharmonie. Frank was awarded first prize at the 2012 International Hans-von-Bülow Competition in Meiningen for his play/direct work with Beethoven and was soon after invited to take part in the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris Play-Direct Academy with Joseph Swensen, Stephen Kovacevich, and François Leleux. On the podium, Frank has previously assisted Sir Simon Rattle, François-Xavier Roth, and Mario Venzago, and will continue to follow this particular passion with upcoming invitations to conduct the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège and Dortmund Philharmonic.

A Steinway Artist, Frank began as a student of Sontraud Speidel at the age of five and recently completed his studies at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe. Over the years, he has played in masterclasses with Emanuel Ax, Menahem Pressler, Ralf Gothóni, Klaus Hellwig, Alexander Braginsky, Cyprien Katsaris, Ferenc Rados, Gábor Takács-Nagy, and Stephen Kovacevich.