| JURY | 2020 EDITION |
THOMAS LANNERS
Thomas Lanners has appeared as a solo and collaborative pianist and clinician throughout the U.S. and abroad, presenting his New York solo debut in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in 2004. His performances have been broadcast nationally and internationally on programs such as American Public Media’s Performance Today, BBC3 in London and RTÉ Radio 1’s Sunday Miscellany in Ireland, among many others.
Thomas has performed, presented master classes, and given lectures on various musical topics as a guest artist throughout the United States, in Mexico, Canada, Europe and Asia. Most recently, he presented master classes at Yonsei University in Seoul, and in China at the Sichuan Conservatory, Shanghai Conservatory and Conservatory Middle School, Zhejiang Conservatory, East China Normal University and Beijing Normal University. In the summer of 2018 he served on the faculties of the Shanghai International Piano Festival and Institute (and will do so again in 2020) and the AmiCaFest Piano Festival in Sicily. Thomas gave a master class on the NYU Steinhardt School of Music’s Piano Artist Master Class Series in 2012 and served as a performer, master class clinician and adjudicator at the Lee University International Piano Festival and Competition in Tennessee.
Other institutions he has visited as a guest artist include the Eastman School of Music, the Universities of Texas-Austin, Colorado-Boulder, North Texas, Miami (FL), South Carolina, Oklahoma, Western Ontario (Canada), and Iowa; Northwestern, Syracuse, Louisiana State, Southern Methodist, and Baylor Universities. In addition, Lanners has played solo recitals in Belgium and performed on the Classical Mondays recital series in Preston Bradley Hall at the Chicago Cultural Center.
His latest recording, Ned Rorem: Piano Works, Volume 2, was released worldwide by Centaur Records. The disc received great critical praise, including this from the Cleveland Plain Dealer: “Thomas Lanners brings exceptional detail and urgency to the repertoire, taking as much care with inner voices as he does with arching statements. Grade: A.” An American Record Guide review of Thomas’ previous CD, Ned Rorem: The Three Piano Sonatas, read: “Anyone who cares about mainstream 20th Century piano music should seek out this superlative recording.” In a review of Lanners’ recording of Leonard Bernstein’s solo piano works, Jed Distler wrote for ClassicsToday.com: “All told, Lanners’ loving mastery easily holds its own in any company. Warmly recommended.”
His championing of American piano music was the topic of an interview article in a 2010 issue of Fanfare. He is an active writer on musical topics, with several feature articles having been published in American Music Teacher magazine, among others. Always in demand as a clinician, he has presented numerous sessions at both Music Teachers National Association conferences and various state associations. Thomas was featured, for the seventh consecutive year, in the annual MusicEdConnect.com National Conference, a four-day online piano pedagogy event, and served in a panel session for the 2020 MTNA Virtual Conference.
Lanners received his Master’s and Doctoral degrees from the Eastman School as a student of Barry Snyder. He also studied under John Perry at the Aspen Music Festival and Jerome Lowenthal at the Music Academy of the West. Designated the 2014 Distinguished Music Teacher by the Oklahoma Music Teachers Association, he currently serves as Professor of Piano at Oklahoma State University.