Merrill Hall, MU212
Spencer Myer is associate professor of music in piano at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
Lauded for “superb playing” and “poised, alert musicianship” by the Boston Globe and labeled “definitely a man to watch” by London’s The Independent, he is one of the most respected and sought-after artists on today’s concert stage.
Myer’s orchestral, recital and chamber music performances have been heard throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Africa and Asia. He has been soloist with The Cleveland Orchestra, the Boise, Dayton, Rhode Island, Cape Town, Johannesburg and Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestras, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston, the Baton Rouge, Indianapolis, Knoxville, New Haven, Omaha, Phoenix, Santa Fe and Tucson Symphony Orchestras, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Mexico’s Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco and Beijing’s China National Symphony Orchestra, collaborating with, among others, conductors Michael Christie, Leslie B. Dunner, Arthur Fagen, Robert Franz, Bernhard Gueller, Jacques Lacombe, Jahja Ling, Timothy Muffitt, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Kevin Rhodes, Lucas Richman, Steven Smith, Thomas Wilkins and Victor Yampolsky. His 2005 recital/orchestral tour of South Africa included a performance of the five piano concerti of Beethoven with the Chamber Orchestra of South Africa, followed by six return orchestra and recital tours.
Myer’s recital appearances have been presented in New York City’s Weill Recital Hall, 92nd Street Y and Steinway Hall, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center and London’s Wigmore Hall, while many of his performances have been broadcast on WQXR (New York City), WHYY (Philadelphia), WCLV (Cleveland) and WFMT (Chicago). An in-demand chamber musician, he has appeared numerous summers at the Lev Aronson Legacy Festival in Dallas with cellists Lynn Harrell, Ralph Kirshbaum, Amit Peled and Brian Thornton, and has enjoyed a recurring partnership for over a decade with the Miami String Quartet at the Kent/Blossom Music Festival. Other artistic partners have included clarinetist David Shifrin, sopranos Nicole Cabell, Martha Guth and Erin Wall, the Jupiter and Pacifica String Quartets and the Dorian Wind Quintet.
Myer’s career was launched with three important prizes: First Prize in the 2004 UNISA International Piano Competition in South Africa, the 2006 Christel DeHaan Classical Fellowship from the American Pianists Association and the Gold Medal from the 2008 New Orleans International Piano Competition. He is also a laureate of the 2007 William Kapell, 2005 Cleveland and 2005 Busoni International Piano Competitions. He enjoys an esteemed reputation as a vocal collaborator since winning the 2000 Marilyn Horne Foundation Competition. He was a member of Astral Artists’ performance roster from 2003 to 2010.
Previously, Myer served as guest faculty at the Oberlin and Baldwin-Wallace Conservatories of Music and was a member of the Piano Faculty of Boston’s Longy School of Music of Bard College from 2016 to 2022. He currently serves on the Board of New York’s Musicians Foundation and Brooklyn Art Song Society.
Myer’s debut CD for the harmonia mundi usa label, solo music of Busoni, Copland, Debussy and Kohs, was released in the fall of 2007 to critical acclaim by Fanfare and Gramophone magazines. He has released five recordings on the Steinway & Sons label since 2017: Piano Rags of William Bolcom, three discs with cellist Brian Thornton encompassing cello/piano repertoire of Brahms, Debussy and Schumann, and most recently, Chopin’s Four Impromptus.
He is a Steinway Artist.