Edward Auer - Late Works of Beethoven and Chopin (2023)

Though he is often identified with the music of Chopin -- not least because of his many highly acclaimed recordings of Chopin's music -- American virtuoso pianist Edward Auer has demonstrated consummate skill in a broad range of repertory, from Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and Schumann to Rachmaninov, Ravel, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, and others from the twentieth century. Auer has heavily concertized over the years, making numerous tours of the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Since the mid-'60s, for example, he has made over 20 concert tours of Poland! The busy pianist has also devoted much time to teaching, serving for the latter half of his career on the faculty of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Auer has made numerous recordings, most of which have been issued on RCA Japan, Erato, Camerata Tokyo, Clarity Records, Brilliant Classics, and Culture/Demain. It is for the latter label that Auer launched a massive Chopin recording project in 2008 with volume one of the nocturnes.

Edward Auer was born in New York City on December 7, 1941. He grew up in Los Angeles and began studying piano at the age of six. From age 10 he took lessons from Aube Tzerko and in his teens studied theory and composition with Leonard Stein and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Auer enrolled at Juilliard, where his teachers included Rosina Lhevinne. He had further study in Paris with Julius Katchen.

The mid-'60s were a pivotal time for the young pianist: in 1964 he won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions; the following year he finished fifth in the Chopin Competition (Warsaw) and second in the Vienna-based Beethoven; he captured fifth in the 1966 Tchaikovsky (Moscow) and first in the 1967 Long-Thibaud Competition in Paris. In the midst of these successes, Auer made his debut at Carnegie Hall (1964) playing the Chopin Second Piano Concerto and launched his first U.S./Canadian tour (1965-1966), giving recitals and appearing with major orchestras like the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

In the 1970s and '80s, Auer's concert schedule was heavy with tours at home and abroad. He eventually found time to serve on juries in major competitions, like the Chopin (in 1985 and 2000) and the Long-Thibaud. In the new century Auer has frequently appeared in concert at Indiana University, but still occasionally tours abroad: his March 2008 appearance in Daejeon, South Korea, featured Auer playing both the Chopin piano concertos in a single concert.