WILLIAM DOPPMANN PIANIST-COMPOSER
BIOGRAPHY
A former winner of the Naumburg, Michaels and Leventritt Competitions , William Doppmann has concertized in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, South America and the Far East as recitalist and as soloist with major orchestras including the Chicago, Cincinnati, Houston, Detroit, Seattle and Tokyo Symphonies, and at numerous festivals including Marlboro, Cleveland's Blossom Festival, Ravinia in Chicago, the Hong Kong International Festival, Chamber Music Northwest and the Kuhmo International Festival in Finland. His 1986 New York recital at Lincoln Center was described by the Times as one of the most distinctive of the season, and he was described on another occasion by the Washington Post as "a pianist giant". Most recently, Mr. Doppmann collaborated with the Jupiter Symphony and conductor Jens Nygaard in Rachmaninoff’s First Piano Concerto and performed in the Naumburg Foundation’s presentation of former Naumburg Prize winners at Alice Tully Hall.
Doppmann has actively pursued the dual role of composer-pianist throughout his life. He studied composition at the Cincinnati Conservatory with Carl Hugo Grimm and later, with Homer Keller and Ross Lee Finney at the University of Michigan. In 1980 he was the first composer to be awarded a Performing Arts Composer Grant by the Washington State Arts Commission who also commissioned, along with Tacoma’s Second City Chamber Series, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, a ballet for chamber orchestra and narrator. During the ensuing decade, Mr. Doppmann had a number of new works performed and was also the recipient of several competitive grants and awards: Two National Endowment for the Arts Consortium Grants, involving six separate performing ensembles, were awarded in 1983 and 1986 respectively; he was chosen as a Guggenheim Fellow in 1987; he received the University of Michigan's Distinguished Alumni Citation of Merit in 1988 and, annually since 1993, has been an ASCAP Special Award recipient. He has also received a Composer Assistance Grant from the American Music Center (2004).
Mr. Doppmann served as Artistic Director of “Chamber Music at Port Townsend” on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state for twenty five years. His chamber music recordings have been issued on the Nonesuch, Delos and Finland's Kuhmo Festival Recording labels. About Albany Recordings’ 1998 release (JamesYannatos Concerto with Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra), Stephen Ellis in Fanfare Magazine commented: “William Doppmann is an exceptional pianist, one of the great unheralded keyboard artists of our day” Solo recordings include Four American Piano Sonatas (Equilibrium, 1999), Goldberg Variations: JS Bach, A View From The 21st Century (Divers, 2003), and Transitions . . . (works by Rachmaninoff, Debussy, Liszt, Bartók) to be released in April, 2006. A Two-Piano recording with Willa Doppmann was released by Second City Chamber Series (works by Rachmaninoff, Mozart, Lutoslawski, Debussy-Ravel) in 2002.
In recent seasons, a number of Doppmann works received their premieres in various locations: Fantasy I (1995) and Fantasy II (1997) are the first two of a set of four works for solo piano loosely based on extended one-movement works of Chopin; Toccata (1997), a short work for solo piano; Seven Duets for Two Violins (2001); Elegy for solo cello (1999); Swordplay for orchestra and solo clarinet, piano, and violin. A recording of his song cycle Springsongs (1981) was released in 2004 with mezzo-soprano Lucy Shelton and the 20th Century Consort (Innova).