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The American pianist, Daniel Pollack, began his studies at the age of 4 and made his debut with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of 9, performing the Frédéric Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School from the class of the legendary Rosina Lhevinne, herself a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory. Pollack continued his graduate studies at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna under a Fulbright scholarship with Bruno Seidlhofer, at the Academia Chigiana.in Siena, Italy with Guido Agosti and was selected as one of 12 pianists internationally to participate in a special L.v. Beethoven master-class of the late Wilhelm Kempff in Positano, Italy. Pollack first garnered the music world's attention when he became a prize-winner in the International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow. Following, he concertized throughout the former Soviet Union and became the first American to record there for Melodya. Later, these were re-issued in Europe and the USA under several different labels.
Daniel Pollack concert career has taken him worldwide across five continents - North America, Europe, Asia, South America and Africa. Highlight appearances as soloist with major orchestras in the USA include the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra; and worldwide, Moscow State Philharmonic Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Russia, London's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Bergen Symphony, Norway, Seoul Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra of Bogota, Colombia, Montevideo Symphony, among others.
Daniel Pollack has performed solo recitals in the major music centers of the world including London's Royal Festival Hall, Vienna's Musikverein, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, Buenos Aires' Teatro Colon, Seoul's Arts Center, Moscow's Bolshoi Zal, New York's Carnegie Hall, Chicago's Orchestra Hall, Los Angeles' Music Center. Additional highlights of his career include guest appearances at Tchaikovsky's home in Kline, Russia, performing on the composer's piano and at a joint session of the United States Congress in honour of President Harry Truman’s Centennial.
Daniel Pollack has held several visiting faculty positions including The Juilliard School, Columbia University and Yale's School of Music. Presently he is on the faculty of the University of Southern California. He is much in demand on international competition juries. He has participated several times on the International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition held in Moscow as well as on the Queen Elizabeth in Brussels; Montreal, Canada; Leeds, England; Ciurlionis, Vilnius, Lithuania; Gina Bachauer, Salt Lake City; Hamamatsu and Sonoda Competitions in Japan; UNISA in Pretoria, South Africa; Prokofiev in St. Petersburg; and the Rachmaninoff in Moscow.
Among Daniel Pollack's many recordings, was the Samuel Barber Sonata, which Pollack premiered in Russia. Subsequent recordings were for Columbia. His most recent CD for Naxos is the complete solo piano works of Samuel Barber. Other recent CD's include an all-F. Chopin recital recorded in the Bolshoi Zal of the Philharmonic in St. Petersburg, Russia, released by Sony on their Infinity Digital label, nationally and on Digital Focus, internationally, as well as two CD's of popular short romantic works for Four Winds. |
