Jarred Dunn
Piano
Jarred Dunn has been described by critics as “a piano sound-colour magician” (Muzikos Barai, Vilnius), “evocative and mystical” (New York Classical Music), "technically perfect" (Belarusian First Radio), and “a virtuoso with the most exquisite touch” (Freethought Today, Madison). Mr. Dunn is featured on the 2018 CBC Top 30 Under 30: Hot Canadian Classical Musicians (CBC) and has hosted CBC’s This is My Music. He is currently on the Faculty of McGill University Schulich School of Music and Alumni Committee of the Aspen Music Festival and School.
His playing has been heard on CBC/Radio-Canada, 98.7 WVMO, New Classical 96.3FM, WWFM, WQXR, Belarusian First Radio, and Madison Freethought Radio/Television. His recordings include Chopin and Debussy (AFA, 2018), Brahms in Solitude (2022); Chopin's Diary: The Mazurkas (Lexicon Classics, 2023), and a fourth album of the complete works of Henryk Mikołaj Górecki (2024). Brahms in Solitude received attention in LaScena Musicale and Piano Professional (EPTA) as a five-star album, “His deft voicing and clarity speak to his understanding of the works of Brahms’s idol, J.S. Bach. His soft sound is at once full-bodied and resonant, and unthinkably quiet. Dunn’s precision, sense of musical direction, and knowledge of the piano’s every colour are on display here.”
Mr. Dunn won First Prize and Concerto Award at the 7th International Chopin Competition of Lithuania (Vilnius 2018), leading to concerts in Europe and abroad, and was a finalist/prizewinner in the 1st Jan Hofmann International Competition (Kraków 2019). He won prizes in Piano and Chamber Music at the Rome, Verona Zinetti, and Vitti International Competitions, and First Prize in McGill Piano Concerto Competition. He has performed worldwide as a recitalist, chamber musician, and soloist with orchestras, and his career has included invitations to perform in Poland, Hungary, Belarus, Slovakia, Germany, Spain, Portugal, France, Malta,The Czech Republic, England, United States, Canada, China, and Australia. He enjoys playing solo recitals, a capacity in which he performs regularly.
Following Mr. Dunn's all-Chopin recital at the Chopin Institute Museum in Warsaw, one critic wrote,
The playing of the brilliant Canadian performer did not lack the “Polishness” that he had a chance to learn thoroughly from the best Polish teachers during his Master’s Studies in Katowice or later in Bydgoszcz. The “Polishness” was audible in every piece: from Nocturne in C minor op. 48 with its drama that was built by the pianist from the very first chords and the tragic ending, through Scherzo in E major op. 54, played with a great sensitivity, brilliant sound and technical mastery, to the brilliant Polonaise Fantaisie op. 61, a piece that is very complex harmonically and difficult in many aspects. Jarred Dunn showed his virtuosity, amazing sense of style, elegance and noble - but not excessive - sensitivity, passion - without being pathetic, beautiful piano and powerful forte, melodious - but not sugary - cantilena, broad phrasing and very rich, nuanced range of sounds.
-Nina Sankari, K. Łyzczyński Foundation
In his repertoire are over forty concertos, representing his interest in this genre of performing. He has appeared as a concerto soloist with the Niagara Symphony, Sinfonia Toronto, York Symphony, McGill Symphony, Toruń Symphony, NOSPR Katowice (National Radio Symphony of the Republic of Poland), Vilnius Chamber, Cantus Symphony (Vilnius), Eurasian Chamber (Berlin), Budapest Chamber, and Belarusian State Radio-Television Orchestras, among others. He has collaborated with conductors Bradley Thachuk, Denis Mastromonaco, Anna Duczmal-Mroz, Przemysław Fiugajski, Jean-Marie Zeitouni, Jakub Chrenowicz, Erki Pehk, Sabatino Vacca, Alexander Liebreich, and Nurhan Arman.
As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with the Johannes Brahms International Master Classes (Poertscach, Austria), the Ãtma Quartet, Baroque cellist Jessica Korotkin, pianists Maria João-Pires and Anna Górecka, and violinist Anna Kuk (Reverb Ensemble), including performances of major works by Franck, Mozart, Brahms, Beethoven, etc. in New York, Toronto, Czech Republic, Italy, Slovakia, and Poland. He is on the artist-faculty of Semaine Internationale Piano at Musique de Chambre (Switzerland) working with such distinguished artists as Edith Fischer, Jorge Pepi-Alos, and Marc Jaermann.
Noted by Tonebase Piano as “a revered pedagogue,” Mr. Dunn has given lectures, workshops and master classes at The Juilliard School, Royal College of Music (London) Southern Methodist University Meadows School of the Arts (Dallas), Bydgoszcz Academy of Music, Katowice Academy of Music, F. Chopin University of Music, Chetham's School of Music, McGill University, University of Puget Sound (Seattle), Laurier University, Canadian Music Centre (CMC), Vilnius New School of Music (Lithuania), Queen's University, and many others. His articles have been published in Canadian Music Educators’ Journal, Piano Magazine (formerly Clavier Companion), and Canadian Music Teacher. Of special importance to him was research at the former site of Auschwitz-Birkenau on music during the Holocaust, culminating in an article about Anita Lasker-Wallfisch (former cellist of the Auschwitz Women's Orchestra). He is featured in the Frances Clark Center From the Artist Bench series (2022). He has received awards and distinctions for his scholastic, musical, and pedagogical achievements including the Teacher Recognition Award (RTO), Graduate Prize of CFMTA National Essay Competition, and research-creation funding from the FRQSC and Canada Council for the Arts. He is also an Examiner for the Royal Conservatory of Music.
His interest in a multitude of approaches to piano playing and musical interpretations has taken him around the world. He participated in master classes with many renowned pianists, including Dmitry Alexeev, Edward Auer, Dmitri Bashkirov, Seymour Bernstein, Rafał Blechacz, Andrea Bonatta, Janina Fialkowska, Leon Fleisher, Peter Frankl, Leslie Howard, Jenö Jandó, Robert Levin, Robert McDonald, John O’Conor, Choong-mo Kang, Tobias Koch, Julian Martin, Émile Naoumoff, Andrzej Jasiński, Seymour Lipkin, Matti Raekallio, Zbigniew Raubo, Hartmut Sauer, Ilja Scheps, Wojciech Świtała, Balasz Szokolay, Tamás Ungár, and Nelita True.
A double-graduate of the University of Toronto (MusBacPerf; B.Ed.), he continued his studies at Aspen Music Festival and School and The Juilliard School with Jacob Lateiner and Yoheved Kaplinsky. While in New York, he became one of the only members of his generation to study with Dorothy Taubman. Mr. Dunn graduated with Distinction from the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice (MM, Diploma), where he was a student of Prof. Anna Górecka (daughter of composer H. M. Górecki). He completed training in the class of Prof. Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń at the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz. He holds a Doctor of Music from McGill University Schulich School of Music, supported by the McGill Doctoral Excellence Fellowship and FRQSC Bourse du doctorat. He worked extensively with Maria João-Pires in Portugal, about which the CBC published Five Things I Learned from Maria João-Pires. He also received important teaching from Andrei Gavrilov and Robert Levin.