Stephen Buck

Stephen Buck, pianist, is in demand as a performer, chamber musician, pedagogue and musical entrepreneur. Buck made his Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall debut through Artists International in New York. Active throughout the United States and Europe, he received his doctoral degree from Yale University School of Music.

Recent performance highlights have included a wide range of repertoire and venues, including three concertos in one evening with the Orquesta Juveníl de Caracas and pianist Vanessa Perez in Venezuela; a chamber opera by Huang Ruo at the Guggenheim Museum in New York; Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, Stravinsky’s Concerto for Piano and Winds and Laura Kaminsky’s Piano Concerto at Purchase College; an appearance on Vanessa Perez’s release for the Steinway label of works by Debussy and de Falla; and recordings for the Innova and Naxos labels of works by Huang Ruo; and performances with actor Bill Murray, cellist Jan Vogler, and violinst Mira Wang.

An avid chamber musician and collaborative pianist, Buck taught and performed for several summers at the Adriatic Chamber Music Festival in southern Italy. In 2006 he co-founded the AlpenKammerMusik Festival in Austria, an intensive 11-day course for musicians of all ages. His interest in new music led him to perform with F.I.RE, a New-York based contemporary music ensemble, while his work with the Polaris Trio explores 19th and 20th century repertoire.

Buck moved back to New York City after teaching piano and music history at the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities. Prior to moving to South Carolina, he completed a teaching fellowship at Yale University, where he earned his Master of Musical Arts in 2001, studying with Peter Frankl. While at Yale, he won the Woolsey Hall Concerto Competition, performing Ravel’s Concerto for the Left Hand.

He received a Master of Music degree from the University of Michigan, studying with Anton Nel, where he won Second Prize at the 1998 Isabel Scionti Competition, the university’s Concerto Competition with the Barber Piano Concerto, and received the Stockwell Memorial Scholarship. He also served on the faculty of the Orchard Lake School of Music. Buck graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Johns Hopkins University in 1995, where he studied with Ann Schein at the Peabody Conservatory.