Back to musicians
Paul Barnes, piano
Praised by the New York Times for his “Lisztian thunder and deft fluidity," pianist Paul Barnes has electrified audiences with his intensely expressive playing and cutting-edge programming. He has been featured seven times on APM’s Performance Today , on the cover of Clavier Magazine, and his recordings are streamed worldwide.
Celebrating his twenty-three-year collaboration with Philip Glass, Barnes commissioned and gave the world premiere performance of Glass's Piano Quintet "Annunciation" with the Chiara Quartet at the Lied Center for Performing Arts on April 17, 2018. The work is Glass's first piano quintet and first work based on Greek Orthodox chant. Barnes who shares with Glass a love for ancient chant, serves as head chanter at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Lincoln, Nebraska. Barnes sang the beautiful communion hymn of the Annunciation for Glass who then agreed to base the new work on that chant. In a Journal Star interview, Glass stated: "You have a world-class pianist in Paul Barnes. He's a pure piano virtuoso." The Journal Star described the world premiere as "meditative...striking...touchingly played by Barnes and the quintet, 'Annunciation' is a romantic, late-period Glass masterwork." Fred Child, host of APR's Performance Today was present for the premiere and wrote: "Pianist Paul Barnes put together and performed a thrilling evening of music!" Child's interview with Barnes and Glass and the world premiere performance of the quintet was featured three times on Performance Today in June, 2018. The New York premiere took place on May 12, 2018 in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York Classical Review called the quintet a "fascinating mosaic of Glass's late style...with a warm inner expression that seemed to echo Brahms." And New York Music Daily labeled the quintet "magically direct...lushly glittering."
Since the world premiere, Barnes has performed the quintet in Chicago, Seattle, and Hartford, with the Chinese premiere at the Sichuan Conservatory in Chengdu. Barnes will perform the quintet in Vermont, Salt Lake City, Philadelphia, with the Canadian, French, and Austrian premieres in 2020. Barnes recorded the quintet with Brooklyn Rider in January of 2019 and will perform with Brooklyn Rider as part of an international CD release event at the Lied Center for Performing Arts on Oct 3, 2019. Nebraska Educational Telecommunications produced a video on the creation of the quintet and the collaborative relationship of Barnes and Glass which was recently featured on PBS News Hour.
Barnes twelfth CD New Generations: The New Etudes of Philip Glass and Music of the Next Generation has received rave reviews. Gramophone Magazine wrote, "Pianists of Barnes's great technique and musicality are a boon to new music." And American Record Guide commented, "This disc provides further proof of Barnes's ability to communicate new music with flair and passion." Produced by Orange Mountain Music, the recording features a selection of Glass's etudes juxtaposed with works by N. Lincoln Hanks, Lucas Floyd, Jason Bahr, Zack Stanton, Ivan Moody, and Jonah Gallagher. The sonic result is a breathtaking panorama of the energetic and expressive landscape that is twenty-first century piano music. Barnes has performed the recital version of New Generations in Vienna, Seoul, Rome, New York, Boston, Los Angeles, and Chicago, Interlochen, and most recently at the 2017 Music Teachers National Association Convention in Glass's hometown of Baltimore.
Barnes also commissioned and gave the world premiere of Glass's Piano Concerto No. 2 (After Lewis and Clark). The Omaha World Herald praised Barnes playing for his “driving intensity and exhilaration.” Nebraska Educational Telecommunications' production "The Lewis and Clark Concerto," a documentary/performance of the concerto featuring Barnes, won an Emmy for Best Performance Production. Additional performances included collaborations with conductor Marin Alsop at the prestigious Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and also the Northwest Chamber Orchestra where the Seattle Times called Barnes' performance "an impressive feat." The world-premier recording with the NWCO was released by Orange Mountain Music. Gramophone Magazine remarked that this recording is "certainly one of the most enjoyable recent releases of Glass's music...Paul Barnes is a shining soloist." Barnes gave the Chinese premiere of the concerto in December of 2018 at the famous Sichuan Conservatory of Music in Chengdu China as part of an inaugural American Music festival.
Orange Mountain Music also released Barnes' recording of his transcriptions from the operas of Philip Glass, including both the Trilogy Sonata and the Orphée Suite for Piano. Gramophone Magazine observed, “Barnes offers a surprisingly expressive reading…. Atmosphere and rhythmic vitality are important, and these qualities Barnes has in abundance.” The American Record said "Barnes is an expressive pianist with a lovely tone and a flair for the dramatic." The Trilogy Sonata and the Orphée Suite for Piano are published by Chester Music of London and are available at sheetmusicplus.com. Barnes' eleventh CD, The American Virtuoso, featuring the music of Philip Glass, Samuel Barber, and Joan Tower was released on Orange Mountain Music to much critical acclaim. The American Record Guide wrote, "Another fine release from the amazing pianist Paul Barnes...with a pianist like this, new American music is in good hands."
Barnes also commissioned a new piano concerto Ancient Keys written by Victoria Bond based on a Greek Orthodox chant. The world-premiere recording of this concerto as well as Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue was released on Albany Records. Barnes has also commissioned Victoria Bond to write a new piano work based on the Greek Orthodox hymn on the crucifixion of Christ. "Simeron Kremate (Today is Suspended)" is co-commissioned by the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts and the SDG Music Foundation in Chicago. The world premiere of Bond's new work was given at Kimball Recital Hall on March 3, 2019 with the Chicago premiere on March 10 at the beautiful Nichols Hall at the Music Institute of Chicago. Reviewers from the recent New York premiere at Symphony Space wrote: "Paul Barnes gave an exciting performance. He is a most visceral player!"
With performances throughout Europe, the Near East, the Far East, and the U.S., Barnes' unique lecture/recitals have received international acclaim. Liszt and the Cross: Music as Sacrament in the B Minor Sonata explores the fascinating relationship between music, theology, and the Orthodox icon. Barnes' live recording of this lecture recital was recently released on the Liszt Digital label. The British Society Newsletter reviewed the recording and wrote that Barnes was “a fine pianist and gives us a performance of resounding conviction.” Clavier Magazine wrote "It is a majestic, reverential performance that elevates listeners to the sacred experience Barnes so eloquently desribes in the lecture."
Barnes is Marguerite Scribante Professor of Music at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Glenn Korff School of Music. He teaches during the summer at the Vienna International Piano Academy and the Amalfi Coast Music Festival. In great demand as a pedagogue and clinician, Barnes has served as convention artist at several state MTNA conventions, most recently at Virginia in October of 2018, and was recently named "Teacher of the Year" by the Nebraska Music Teachers Association.
Upcoming performances include Barnes' latest lecture recital Love, Death, and Resurrection in the Musical Vision of Glass, Liszt, and Byzantine Chant. Barnes gave the premiere performance of this interdisciplinary event in Los Angeles with additional performances in Philadelphia, Arizona, South Carolina, Minneapolis, the Amalfi Coast Music Festival, Atlanta, Jacksonville, Nashville, Dallas, Chicago, Seattle, and the 2018 American Liszt Society Festival at Furman University. Barnes is also collaborating with Native Flutist Ron Warren and will give the world premiere of a new work for solo piano by Warren entitled Piano Distance at an interdisciplinary performance event In Harmony: Ancient Songs, Modern Voices at the Omaha Conservatory of Music.
Barnes' recordings are available on Pandora, ITunes, Apple Music, YouTube, and Amazon.