Telephone: (843) 953-6575
Office: 401, Simons Center
E-mail: grafe@cofc.edu
Courses:
- Repertory Class: Piano
- Ensemble: Chamber Music
- Applied Music: Piano
Web site: www.enriquegraf.com
Enrique Graf
Associate Professor, Piano
Artist in Residence
Enrique Graf was born in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1953. He started studying piano at the age of four with his mother and later at the Falleri-Balzo Conservatory. After winning all of the national competitions there, he came to the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University to study with Leon Fleisher on a full scholarship from the Organization of American States and the Peabody.
In 1977 he and Katherine Jacobson won First Prize in the National Ensemble Two Piano Competition, the following year Mr. Graf was the First Prize winner in the William Kapell International Piano Competition and in 1981 he won the East and West International Competition in New York City.
Graf has given recitals all over the world and has been featured as soloist with such orchestras as the Baltimore, Indianapolis, New Jersey, Richmond, Florida, West Virginia, Charleston, New York City and Jupiter Symphonies; the Moscow Philharmonic, the Janacek Philharmonic, the National Chamber Orchestra, the Illinois Chamber Orchestra, the American Chamber Orchestra, the Puerto Rico Symphony, and the National Orchestras of Chile, Uruguay, Panama and Colombia. He has appeared at Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Krannert Center, Carnegie Recital Hall, the Cultural Center of Manila, Teatro Opera in Buenos Aires, the Chautauqua Festival, Young Keyboard Artists International Festival in Ann Arbor and the University of Maryland International Piano Festival.
As a chamber musician he has performed with Cuarteto Latinoamericano, The Baltimore Wind Ensemble, the American Chamber Players, the Prague Wind Quintet, the Apollo String Quartet, and the Ives String Quartet.
His latest recording, an all Poulenc CD was a pick of the month by the Sunday London Times and was awarded five stars in Classic CD.His debut recording Enrique Graf plays Bach was called "An end to the discussion of whether of not Bach should be played on the piano" by Paul Hume of the Washington Post. Other recordings of the Liszt Sonata, the Grieg and two Beethoven Concertos have received such praise as "ideal performances" (Fanfare).
After fourteen years of teaching at the Peabody Preparatory, where he became chairman of the piano department, he received the Directors' Recognition Award for Outstanding Teaching in 1989. He is Artist in Residence at the College of Charleston, and in 1996 the College awarded him the Distinguished Research Award. While continuing to build an outstanding piano program in Charleston, he is also on the graduate faculty of Carnegie Mellon University. His students have won many national and international competitions. Mr. Graf has been on the juries of international competitions in the United States and Europe and has given master-classes on four continents.
Graf is founder and Artistic Director of the International Piano Series in Charleston and the Young Artist Series in the Piccolo Spoleto Festival. He was awarded a Fellowship from the Aspen Institute Executive Seminar, the Music Fellowship from the South Carolina Arts Commission, Career Grants from the Charles Del Mar and Astral Foundations and the Immigrant Achievement Award from the American Immigration Law Foundation.
The New York Times described one of his appearances as "a triumph, in all respects" and The Washington Post has called him on different occasions "memorable, elegant, masterful, refined".