Brian Thornton & Spencer Myer
Biographie Brian Thornton & Spencer Myer
Brian Thornton
is a musician of many interests. As cellist and conductor, he has performed in hundreds of venues across the world, from The White House in Washington,D.C., to the Great Hall of the People in Beijing,China. He has performed as soloist with over 30 orchestras, and conducts his own ensemble located in Solon,Ohio. Having a special interest in modern music has led him to premier works of little known to well known composers such as Donald Erb and John Adams. Brian has taken part in premiering over 100 new works of music, either as a soloist or in chamber ensembles. Brian especially enjoys taking part in concerts that benefit special causes, such as the Muscular Dystrophy Society, and took part in concerts in Cleveland for the Red Cross for earthquake and tsunami relief in Japan. As a teacher, Brian has given master classes from California to Germany, and enjoys passing on the knowledge given to him by his teachers, Lev Aronson, Lynn Harrell, John Sharp and Steven Geber. Brian has been a Yamaha Artist since 2010, and makes frequent trips to Japan to teach and play outreach concerts there. He spends his days enjoying time with his wife Jennifer Woda, a mezzo-soprano, and his daughters, Maya and Madelyn. Evenings are spent performing with the world-renowned Cleveland Orchestra, where he has been in the cello section for 17 years.
Spencer Myer
Lauded for "superb playing" and "poised, alert musicianship" by the Boston Globe, and labeled "definitely a man to watch" by London's The Independent, American pianist SPENCER MYER is one of the most respected and sought-after artists on today's concert stage.
Adding to his North American credentials, Spencer Myer includes in his current season debuts with the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic, the Omaha and Mid-Texas Symphony Orchestras, the Massapequa Philharmonic Orchestra and Canada’s Windsor Symphony Orchestra, as well as return engagements with the Canton, Chattanooga and Richmond (IN) symphony orchestras. His solo recitals and chamber music collaborations take him throughout the United States, and he continues as half of the Daurov/Myer Duo, having teamed up with the award-winning cellist Adrian Daurov in 2012.
Spencer 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, among many others, The Cleveland Orchestra, Boise, Dayton, Evansville, Louisiana and Rhode Island philharmonic orchestras, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston, the Altoona, Baton Rouge, Bozeman, Canton, Chattanooga, Duluth Superior, Flagstaff, Grand Junction, Indianapolis, Juneau, Knoxville, Longmont, Macon, Missoula, New Haven, Phoenix, Ridgefield, San Juan, Santa Fe, Springfield (MA, MO, OH), Traverse, Tucson and Wyoming symphony orchestras, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Ohio’s ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, New York City’s The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony, Mexico’s Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco, South Africa’s Cape Town and Johannesburg philharmonic orchestras and Beijing’s China National Symphony Orchestra, collaborating with, among others, conductors David Bernard, Nicholas Cleobury, Kayoko Dan, David Danzmayr, Robert Franz, Neal Gittleman, Bernhard Gueller, Jacques Lacombe, Jahja Ling, Dirk Meyer, Elliot Moore, Timothy Muffitt, Maurice Peress, Kyle Wiley Pickett, Arthur Post, Kevin Rhodes, Lucas Richman, Matthew Savery, Alfred Savia, Klauspeter Seibel, Steven Smith, Gerald Steichen, Arjan Tien, Peter Stafford Wilson 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 return orchestra and recital tours in 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2015 and 2018.
Spencer 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 the past five summers at the Lev Aronson Legacy Festival in Dallas with cellists Lynn Harrell, Ralph Kirshbaum, Amit Peled, Tom Landschoot and Brian Thornton, and has enjoyed a recurring partnership with the Miami String Quartet at the Kent/Blossom Music Festival. Other artistic partners include clarinetist David Shifrin, sopranos Nicole Cabell, Martha Guth and Erin Wall, the Jupiter and Pacifica string quartets and the Dorian Wind Quintet.
Spencer 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. Mr. Myer was a member of Astral Artists' performance roster from 2003-2010.
An enthusiastic supporter of the education of young musicians, Spencer Myer has served as a guest faculty at the Oberlin and Baldwin-Wallace Conservatories of Music, and in the fall of 2015, he was appointed Artist-Teacher of Piano and Collaborative Piano at Boston's Longy School of Music of Bard College.
Spencer Myer's debut CD for harmonia mundi usa - solo music of Busoni, Copland, Debussy and Kohs - was released in the fall of 2007 to critical acclaim by Fanfare and Gramophone magazines. He can also be heard on a composer-conducted Naxos CD in performances of three concerti from Huang Ruo's Chamber Concerto Cycle and in a performance of Ravel's Chansons madecasses, included on "Intimate Masterpieces," a 2013 CD featuring faculty and alumni of the Oberlin Conservatory and issued by Oberlin Music. Mr. Myer's most recent recordings -- "Bolcom: Selected Rags" and the Brahms Cello Sonatas with Brian Thornton -- were both released in January 2017 on the Steinway & Sons label.
Spencer Myer is a Steinway Artist.
