Molly Morkoski

molly-morkoski Email: molly.morkoski@lehman.cuny.edu
Phone: 718-960-7797
Office: Music Building, Room 405
Office Hours: By appointment requested via email
Rank: Associate Professor

Degrees and Sources of Degrees

B.M., University of North Carolina; M.M., Indiana University; D.M.A., State University of New York at Stony Brook

Biography

Select Performances / Recordings / Grants / Links / www.mollymorkoski.com

Pianist Molly Morkoski has performed as a soloist and collaborative artist throughout the US, Europe, and Japan. Molly Morkoski’s playing has been recognized by The New York Times as “strong, profiled, nuanced……beautifully etched.” The Boston Globe has called her “outstanding.” Allan Kozinn of The New York Times praised Ms. Morkoski for the performance of three of Ligeti’s 18 etudes and described her as an “energetic, focused player” and said that her performance “proved so varied and substantial that you wished she were offering them all.” In June of 2007, she made her solo debut on Carnegie’s Stern Auditorium/Perelman stage and, in 2003, performed on the inaugural concert of Carnegie’s Zankel Hall under the direction of John Adams.

Ms. Morkoski’s performances also include appearances at Carnegie's Weill Hall, Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall and Miller Theater in NY, Le Poisson Rouge in NY, Boston's Gardner Museum and Jordan Hall, St Louis’ Pulitzer Museum, Portland’s Newmark Theater, Washington D.C.'s Smithsonian, Strasbourg Conservatoire, and the US Embassies in Paris and Nice. She has appeared as soloist at the Tanglewood, Bang-on-a-Can, and Pacific Rim festivals, and performed concertos with the Raleigh, Asheville, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestras, and Moravian Philharmonic Orchestras. An avid chamber musician, she is a member of the Zankel Band, Open End Ensemble, Exponential Ensemble, and Meme; she has collaborated with the NY Philharmonic Chamber Players, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony, the New World Symphony, Speculum Musicae, Brooklyn Chamber Music Society, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra; Ms. Morkoski has collaborated with some of today’s leading musicians including Dawn Upshaw, John Adams, John
Corigliano and David Robertson.

An avid proponent of new music, Ms. Morkoski has worked with many living composers, most recently presenting Mark Grey’s “Fire Angels” in Carnegie Hall and on the Cal Performances Series in Berkeley, California with Ensemble Meme and soprano, Jessica Rivera. She has also worked closely with John Adams, Louis Andriessen, Gerald Barry, John Corigliano, David Del Tredici, Lukas Foss, John Harbison, Aaron Jay Kernis, David Lang, Oliver Knussen, George Perle, Steve Reich, Steven Stucky, Andrew Waggoner, and Charles Wuorinen. In May of 2008, she gave the world premiere of Martin Kennedy’s Piano Concerto with the Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra and has recorded that work with the Moravian Philharmonic for release during 2012. Her first solo disc will also be released in 2012, along with a disc of solo and chamber music by recent Grammy Award winning composer Gabriela Lena Frank, also for Albany Records, for which her ensemble, Meme, received the illustrious Copland Recording Grant.

Ms. Morkoski was a Fulbright scholar to Paris, France where she was apprentice with the Ensemble Intercontemporain. She is also one of the first recipients of the Teresa Sterne Career Grant and was given the Thayer-Ross Award upon completion of her doctorate in 2002. She earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she studied with Michael Zenge, a Master’s degree from Indiana University in Bloomington with Leonard Hokanson, and a Doctorate degree from SUNY-Stony Brook where her teacher was Gilbert Kalish. Ms. Morkoski currently lives in New York City and is Associate Professor at Lehman College in the Bronx.

Select Performances

In 2011

ASCAP Honors Fanny Mendelssohn; solo piano performance; ASCAP offices, Manhattan, NY (November 17, 2011).
Solo Piano Recital; Martin Kennedy's Solo Piano Sonata; Lehman College (October 27, 2011).
Open End Concerts and Masterclasses at Syracuse University; Syracuse, NY (October 20, 21, 2011).
"1882 Songs" of Mark Baechle; Tenri Cultural Institute, Manhattan, NY (October 9, 2011).
Lecture Recital; Martin Kennedy's Solo Piano Sonata; Lehman College, Recital Hall, Bronx, NY (October 5, 2011).
St Louis Symphony Orchestra; Stravinsky Ballets (September 16, 17 2011).
Calvary Concert Series, Manhattan, NY; Goldberg Variations of JS Bach (June 18, 2011).
Keys to the Future Piano Series, solo piano appearance; Gallery, Manhattan, NY (May 26, 2011).
Bach Goldberg Variations solo piano concert at the University Club, Manhattan, NY (May 19, 2011).
Riverdale Sinfonietta Concert, Riverdale, NY (May 15, 2011).
Bach Goldberg Variataions; Lehman College (May 10, 2011).
Viola National Conference; Christ St Stephen's Church, Manhattan, NY Violist David Cerutti (May 1, 2011)
Master Class Turtle Bay Music School; Manhattan, NY (April 30, 2011).
Master Class Turtle Bay Music School; Manhattan, NY (April 26, 2011)
Carnegie Hall "Making Music" Christopher Rouse concert; Zankel Hall (April 15, 2011).
California Performances series in Berkeley California Hertz Hall; repeat of Carnegie show on March 29 (April 3, 2011).
Carnegie's Zankel Hall duo recital with Jessica Rivera; Mark Grey's "Fire Angels" premiere with Meme ensemble and Debussy and Schumann song cycles (March 29, 2011).
Debussy and Schumann Song Cycles; Jessica Rivera, Soprano; Lehman College (March 22, 2011)
Toronto Opera Company, "Nixon in China" production. (February 21-27, 2011).
Recorded Mark Grey's "A Rax Dawn" Lehman College (February 16, 2011).
Metropolitan Opera production of Nixon in China (February 2, 5, 9,12,15,19, 2011).
Brooklyn Philharmonic "off the Shelves" concert series; Chamber Music; Brooklyn Public Library (January 30, 2011).
Prague/Olomouc Recording with Moravian Philharmonic; Albany Records Kennedy Concerto (Jan 18-24, 2011 ).

Recordings Released

Waggoner 'Inventory of Terrors" (Albany Records)
Stinson "Lines" (Albany Records)
Metropolitan Opera House: John Adams monumental "Nixon in China"
Canadian Opera Company: "Nixon in China"
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra: Stravinsky Ballets
Meme: Mark Grey "Fire Angels" debut concert in Carnegie's Zankel Hall
Cal Performances Berkeley California: Meme
Keys to the Future, solo piano series, NY, NY
Brooklyn Philharmonic Chamber Series

Recordings

Threads (Albany Records, click here for more info)
Composer Andrew Waggoner's Andrew Waggoner: Terror and Memory
Cellist Caroline Stinson's Lines: European Lineages in American Music

Grants

Copland Recording Grant (2011)

George N. Shuster Fellowship (2009)