David Kalhous (Czech Republic/USA)

David Kalhous has gained recognition in Europe and the United States for his elegant musicianship, brilliant pianism, probing intelligence, and engaging programming. With wide-ranging repertoire spanning three centuries, he is equally at home with music of Scarlatti and Bach, Beethoven and Chopin, and Ligeti and Feldman.

David Kalhous’ debut solo recital at the Prague Spring Festival was met with critical acclaim, and he has been invited to present recitals at Symphony Space, Bargemusic, and Spectrum in New York City; PianoForte Foundation and WFMT radio station in Chicago; Embassy of the Czech Republic in Washington, D.C.; Prague Symphony Orchestra’s World Piano recital series, Czech Philharmonic Chamber Music Society, Czech Radio’s Studio Live Concert Series, Israel Contemporary Players recital series at Teiva in Tel Aviv-Yaffo, and Konvergence New Music Series in Prague, to name a few. He also recently performed at Northwestern University, Yale University, University of Chicago, Eastman School of Music, and University of North Carolina School of the Arts, among others.

Recent collaborations with orchestra include Bernstein’s The Age of Anxiety with Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra under Stefan Asbury, Brahms’ D Minor Concerto with the North Bohemia Symphony Orchestra, Cage’s Concert for Piano and Orchestra with the Florida State University New Music Ensemble, Mendelssohn’s Double Concerto for Violin and Piano with the Plzeň Philharmonic Orchestra, and Beethoven’s Third and Fifth Piano Concerti with the Chamber Philharmonia Pardubice.  David Kalhous also appeared as a soloist with the Israel Symphony Orchestra, Prague Philharmonia, Prague Symphony Orchestra FOK, Moravian Philharmonic, West-Bohemia Symphony Orchestra, and Musici di Praga among others, and has worked with such conductors as Libor Pešek, Eli Jaffe, Leoš Svárovský, Stanislav Vavřínek and Marián Valčuha.

David Kalhous made various recordings for the Czech Radio and Television, and his performances were broadcast on WFMT Chicago, WUOT, and WFSQ. He was also the author and host of a series of radio programs devoted to music for piano and its interpretation that were produced and broadcast by the radio station Classic FM in Prague. Czech Television’s Channel 2 showed a documentary film about David Kalhous.

Recently, David Kalhous recorded 12 piano sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti as part of the Czech Radio’s Complete Scarlatti Sonatas project, as well as a solo CD for the Arco Diva label with sonatas by Beethoven, Janáček, and Liszt.  With violinist Benjamin Sung, he presented the complete works of Beethoven for piano and violin in four concerts.

David Kalhous’ interest in 20th century and new music has resulted in close collaboration with many European and American composers who have written works expressly for him. He has performed with and under the auspices of the Northwestern University Contemporary Music Ensemble, Ensemble Konvergence, Florida State University New Music Ensemble, Florida State University Chamber Winds, Fonema Consort, and Texas Tech University New Music Ensemble. He was the first pianist to perform the first book of György Ligeti’s piano Études and Morton Feldman’s For Bunita Marcus in Prague.  His new solo piano project, Piano Music from Prague, features newly commissioned works by eight leading Czech composers, with performances planned in several European and American cities and a commercial release of the recordings.

David Kalhous began his professional studies at the Prague Conservatory as a student of Jaroslav Čermák. His attended such institutions as Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna, the Academy of Arts in Prague, the Rubin Academy of Music at Tel-Aviv University and Yale University, and studied with Paul Badura Skoda, Emil Leichner, Victor Derevianko, David Northington, and Peter Frankl. David Kalhous holds a Doctor of Music degree from Northwestern University, where he studied with Ursula Oppens. He also worked with Jerome Lowenthal at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, and with Paul Lewis at the Gilmore Keyboard Festival as a Gilmore Fellow.

David Kalhous resides in New York City, and is currently Associate Professor of Piano at Florida State University College of Music.