In 2012 American pianist Stephen Porter was named artist-resident of the Cité Internationale Des Arts in Paris, and invited to give recitals of the music of Claude Debussy during the composer’s 150th birthday year. His performances of the complete Piano Preludes of Debussy in Paris, in Sarajevo as the featured soloist of the 8th Bosnia International Music Festival, and in the United States have been called “masterful...everything is graceful and appropriate.” Mr. Porter was recently the guest on National Public Radio’s “Diane Rehm Show,” to discuss Debussy’s life and music and play selections from the live concerts. (listen here) His playing has been critically acclaimed as “simply stunning” and “an amazing sound” (Boston Musical Intelligencer), and his Schubert B-flat Sonata at the Boston Early Music Festival was praised as “eloquent...the sound was pure magic” (Early Music America) and “extraordinary...compelling and moving” (Berkshire Review). The Beethoven scholar Jan Swafford, writing for Slate Magazine, called his live performance “the most exciting and appropriate Beethoven Appassionata.” Stephen Porter performs extensively in the U.S., and has given solo recitals at Albert Long Hall in Istanbul, Turkey, and the Rockefeller Foundation at Bellagio, Italy. He was the featured guest soloist with the Amadeus Orchestra of London at LSO St. Luke’s, and this season gave premieres of the Second Piano Sonata by Andrew List and Caio Senna’s “Testamento” in Paris. Solo recital venues where he has appeared include Harvard University’s Sanders Theatre, Christ Church Cathedral in St. Louis, Amherst College’s Buckley Recital Hall, the Nantucket Atheneum and the Frederick Historic Piano Collection. Steinway & Sons selected him to give five concerts as part of the Legendary Instruments of the Immortals Tour, as well as to present the unique Walden Woods Concert Grand and give lecture-recitals on the Horowitz piano.

His many chamber music activities include performances with members of the St. Louis Symphony, and with concertmaster David Halen at the invitation of the Missouri Fine Arts Academy. He is a frequent collaborator with acclaimed mezzo-soprano Krista River, and their current recitals include several works by Ned Rorem and John Harbison, coached by the composers. Other recent chamber music appearances of note include the Brahms Piano Quintet in Fort Lauderdale with the principals of the South Florida Symphony, a commemorative concert of the Charles Ives Piano Trio at the composer’s alma mater the Hopkins School in New Haven, and the remarkable first piano part for the original version of Rossini’s “Petite Messe Solennelle” at the Merrimack College Rogers Center for the Arts. Mr. Porter’s several recitals at the Frederick Collection, including an interview regarding his performance of the final three Beethoven Sonatas on an original instrument, have been recorded live for broadcast on National Public Radio. He has also recorded the final three Schubert sonatas, Moments Musicaux and an original song transcription on the Frederick Collection’s 1828 Viennese Graf.

Stephen Porter is a graduate of Oberlin College magna cum laude, and the New England Conservatory of Music in Piano Performance with Distinction. His teachers were Peter Takacs, Jacob Maxin and Paul Doguereau. He was privileged to study between 1993 and 1999 with Mr. Doguereau, who in 1924 had received the Premier Prix at the Paris Conservatory as a student of Marguerite Long, played for Debussy’s wife Emma Bardac in the years just following the composer’s death, and was a protégé of Ravel (who he accompanied on the 1928 tour of the United States). Mr. Porter has judged national and international piano competitions and given masterclasses at many schools, including Washington University, Boston University, New England Conservatory and the Longy School of Music. He has been on the piano faculties of Webster University, Phillips Andover Academy, and the chamber music faculty of the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. Stephen Porter is a past winner of the prestigious Artist Presentation Society auditions.