Audrey Andrist
Hailed as a “stunning pianist with incredible dexterity” (SF Classical Voice), Canadian pianist Audrey Andrist has thrilled audiences around the globe, from North America to Europe and Asia, with her “passionate abandon” and “great intelligence.” Ms. Andrist grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan, and while in high school traveled three hours one-way for piano lessons with William Moore, himself a former student of famed musicians Cécile Genhart and Rosinna Lhévinne. She completed Masters and Doctoral degrees at the Juilliard School with Herbert Stessin, and garnered first prizes at the Mozart International, San Antonio International, Eckhardt-Gramatté, and Juilliard Concerto Competitions. She has performed at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Montreal’s Place des Arts, Alice Tully Hall in New York and the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. She is a member of the Stern/Andrist Duo with her husband, violinist James Stern, and Strata, a trio with Stern and Nathan Williams, clarinet (on the web at stratamusic.org).
An ardent exponent of new music, Ms. Andrist has presented many world premieres of music written for her and the ensembles with which she plays, including a Piano Concerto written for her by award-winning Canadian composer Andrew P. MacDonald, premiered with the CBC Vancouver Orchestra and Mario Bernardi conducting. Ms. Andrist can be heard on over a dozen recordings of both standard and modern repertoire. She lives in the Washington, DC area, where she teaches at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County and the Washington Conservatory, and where she is in constant demand as a soloist, chamber player, orchestral pianist and adjudicator. Her critically acclaimed CD of solo piano music by Robert Schumann is available on Centaur Records. www.audreyandrist.com.