2009 | Elizabeth Joy Roe, Piano

About the Artist

Hailed as “brilliant” (the New York Times), “an artist to be taken seriously” (the Chicago Tribune), “electrifying” (the Dallas Morning News), “magnificent” (Piano and Keyboard Magazine), “a mature and fascinating interpreter and an artist of intelligence, insight, and a genuine grace” (the Southampton Press), pianist Elizabeth Joy Roe was featured in Symphony Magazine’s cover story as one of the classical music world’s “Six on the Rise: Young Artists to Watch.” As the recipient of the prestigious William Petschek Piano Debut Recital Award, Ms. Roe made her New York solo recital debut at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in April 2007. She made her New York concerto debut in 2005 under the baton of James Conlon, performing the Britten Piano Concerto at Alice TullyHall. In 2003 she stepped in on short notice to replace the late John Browning for subscription performances of the Barber Piano Concerto— a work Browning had premiered in 1962 at the opening of Lincoln Center—with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra; the Delaware News Journal pronounced her pianism as “astonishing” and “stunning.”

Her 1997 debut with the Chicago Philharmonic elicited accolades from John von Rhein of the Chicago Tribune: “[Ms.] Roe supplied scintillation in the Grieg [Concerto]… a lot of pianists play the Grieg but not many adults twice the age of [Ms.] Roe could make this familiar score sing so poetically or with such spontaneity.” Ms. Roe has performed at major venues around the world including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the 92nd Street Y, and Steinway Hall in New York; the Seoul Arts Center in Korea; Salle Cortot in Paris; the Ravinia Festival in Chicago; Salón Dorado and Teatro Argentino in Buenos Aires; the Banff Centre in Canada; the Portland International Piano Festival; and the Gina Bachauer International Piano Festival. She has also performed for members of the United Nations and for special events celebrating The Juilliard School’s centennial year at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. She has appeared as soloist with theMilwaukee Symphony and Chamber Orchestras, the Indianapolis Symphony and Chamber Orchestras, the Juilliard Orchestra, the Chicago Philharmonic, the Prime Philharmonic Orchestra, the Ars Viva Symphony, and the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra, among others.

Recent performance highlights include a recital at Meet the Artist the Hoam Art Hall in Seoul, a presentation at the 2008 Entertainment Gathering Conference in Monterey, the Carnegie Hall premiere of Messiaen’s Visions de l’Amen, multiple chamber music performances with Ensemble ACJW at Carnegie Hall, and an artistic residency sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Argentina. This season includes concerto, solo, and collaborative performances in North America, Europe, and Asia. A Chicago native, Ms. Roe was only 13 years old when she won the grand prize at the IBLA International Piano Competition in Italy. She has been honored by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, the National Association for Professional Asian Women, the Music for Youth Foundation, and the Samsung Foundation of Culture. She has attended the Steans Institute for Young Artists at the Ravinia Festival, the Banff International Keyboard Festival, Pianofest in the Hamptons, the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival, and Music Academy of the West (as a fellowship recipient).

Ms. Roe earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Juilliard as a full scholarship student of Yoheved Kaplinsky. She has additionally worked with a multitude of internationally renowned musicians including Emanuel Ax, Leon Fleisher, Claude Frank, Miriam Fried, Richard Goode, Joseph Kalichstein, Ralph Kirshbaum, and Robert Levin. An avid chamber musician, she has collaborated with numerous musicians and ensembles, most notably a groundbreaking piano duo partnership with Greg Anderson. Ms. Roe’s wide-ranging career includes world premieres of new music, live performance broadcasts and interviews on television and radio (appearing on NPR, the BBC, and numerous stations nationwide and abroad), and a variety of artistic projects. Ms. Roe was an inaugural fellow of The Academy—A Program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and The Weill Music Institute.

As part of this fellowship program, she was a teaching artist at a public school in Queens, and she co-founded the Children’s Music Campaign NYC. In recognition of her contributions to arts advocacy, she was awarded the 2008 McGraw-Hill Companies’ Robert Sherman Award for Music Education and Community Outreach. Engaged in a vast array of pursuits, she is a Soros Fellow, a fivetime laureate of the National French Contest, a student delegate at the 2006 International Achievement Summit, and a recipient of Juilliard’s Scholastic Distinction Award. She has also co-directed an interactive performance project featuring Juilliard pianists, given community service concerts, conducted master classes for young musicians, served as adviser to the PianoArtsNorth American Competition, and participated in an educational residency program for the Van Cliburn Foundation. Ms. Roe is a Steinway Artist, and she now holds a fellowship post as visiting artist and professor in piano at Smith College.