David Korevaar's mastery of the piano is joined with a large and varied repertoire, and enhanced by his work with living composers and his own experience writing music. He successfully balances an active performance career as a soloist and chamber musician with teaching at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he is the Peter and Helen Weil Professor of Piano.
David Korevaar presented his London debut at Wigmore Hall in 2007, as well as his German recital debut at the Heidelberg Spring Festival. He has been heard at major venues in New York including Weill Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Town Hall, and Merkin Concert Hall. He has performed across the United States from Boston, New York, and Washington, DC, to Chicago, Cincinnati, Houston, Dallas, and San Diego, and he plays frequently in his home state of Colorado with orchestras, in chamber ensembles, and in solo recitals. International performances have included appearances in Australia, Japan, Korea, Abu Dhabi, and Europe. He has performed and taught in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan as a cultural envoy under the sponsorship of the U.S. State Department.
Currently a member of the Boulder Piano Quartet (Boulder Public Library's ensemble-in-residence), and University of Texas at Dallas's resident Clavier Trio, Korevaar has performed as guest artist with the Takács, Manhattan, and Colorado Quartets. He was a founding member of the Young Concert Artists award-winning piano and wind ensemble Hexagon, with which he toured for many years.
In addition to his position at the University of Colorado Boulder, Korevaar teaches and performs at the Music in the Mountains summer festival in Durango, CO, and the Music Center Japan.
David Korevaar's most recent CDs are Beethoven Violin Sonatas with Edward Dusinberre (Decca) and chamber music by American composer David Carlson (MSR Classics), both released in 2010. Other recent releases include Lowell Liebermann Quintets and Six Songs (Koch), released in 2008, and Bach Goldberg Variations (Ivory) and Ricardo Viñes Collection (Koch), both released in 2007. He has also recorded Beethoven Sonatas No. 28, 16 and 32 (Ivory Classics), Ravel's Le tombeau de Couperin, Gaspard de la nuit, and Miroirs (MSR Classics) and Brahms Variations for Piano (Ivory Classics). His broad musical interests and extensive repertoire are reflected in CDs ranging from the two books of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier (Musicians Showcase) to the piano music of Lowell Liebermann, Volume 1 and Volume 2 (Koch Classics). He has recorded the romantic virtuoso compositions of Hungarian composer Ernst von Dohnányi (Ivory Classics), and transcriptions (his own and Liszt's) of orchestral music by Franz Liszt, including the rarely heard 2nd Mephisto Waltz (Helicon).
Other releases include a CD by the Prometheus Quartet featuring music by 19th-Century Frenchmen Saint-Saëns and d'Indy (Centaur), an album of Lowell Liebermann's chamber music with flutist Alexa Still (Koch Classics), the complete sonatas for brass instruments by Paul Hindemith (Kleos), and the Brahms Violin Sonatas with violinist Anastasia Khitruk (Titanic).
David Korevaar's interest in new music is reflected in his programming. In addition to his continuing association with the music of Lowell Liebermann, Korevaar has performed and recorded music by composers including David Carlson, Robert Xavier Rodriguez, Paul Schoenfield, Mike Barnett, Aaron Jay Kernis, George Rochberg, Aaron Copland, Ned Rorem, Stephen Jaffe, Scott Eyerly and Libby Larson. He gave the New York premiere of three of Harrison Birtwistle's Harrison's Clocks as part of the Juilliard School's Piano Century series in 2000. The Clavier Trio gave the world premiere of Robert Xavier Rodriguez's Sor(tri)lege in February 2008 in Dallas, followed by its New York premiere at Weill Hall.
Korevaar is a frequent participant in the University of Colorado's Pendulum new music series. For an idea of what he looks for in new music, read Korevaar's essay in the October 2003 New Music Box.
Korevaar was honored along with co-author and webmaster Tim Smith of Northern Arizona University for a web-based exploration of the Fugues of the Well-Tempered Clavier, featuring analytical essays and animations by Professor Smith, performance-related essays by Korevaar, and Korevaar's performances of the music. The site received top honors both in music and overall, including the Editors' Choice Award from MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching). He also collaborated with Smith on an exploration of J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations.
In May 2000 he received the Richard French award from the Juilliard School, honoring his doctoral document on Ravel's Miroirs. Other honors include top prizes from the University of Maryland William Kapell International Piano Competition (1988) and the Peabody-Mason Music Foundation (1985), as well as a special prize for his performance of French music from the Robert Casadesus Competition (1989).
David Korevaar began his piano studies at age six in San Diego with Sherman Storr, and at age 13 he became a student of the great American virtuoso Earl Wild. By age 20 he had earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the Juilliard School, where he continued his studies with Earl Wild and studied composition with David Diamond. He completed his Doctor of Musical Arts from the Juilliard School with Abbey Simon. Another important mentor and teacher was the French pianist Paul Doguereau, who had been a student of Egon Petri, and who had studied the music of Fauré and Debussy with Roger-Ducasse (a pupil of Fauré's), and the music of Ravel with the composer.
Prior to joining the faculty of the University of Colorado in 2000, Korevaar taught for many years at the Westport School of Music in Connecticut, where he was Artist-Teacher. He currently lives in Boulder, Colorado, and Dallas, Texas, with his family.