About
Edna Stern is an artist with a reputation as an interpreter who does not shrink from taking strong and unconventional stands and at the same time respectful of the historical tradition of interpretation and the heritage of her own teachers, among them, Leon Fleisher and Krystian Zimerman.
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A concert pianist, composer and piano professor at the Royal College of Music of London, Edna Stern has performed as soloist in prestigious halls and orchestras from the Paris Philharmonie to New York’s Lincoln Center and the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam. Her compositions are published by Musica Mundana, Musikverlag GmbH.
Edna Stern Edna Stern began her studies in Israel with Viktor Derevianko, a student of Heinrich Neuhaus. She continued studying with Krystian Zimerman at the Basel Hochschule and with Leon Fleisher at the Peabody Institute and at the Lake Como International Piano Foundation.
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A concert pianist and piano professor at the Royal College of Music of London, Edna Stern has performed as soloist in prestigious halls and orchestras from the Paris Philharmonie to New York’s Lincoln Center and the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, and given masterclasses all over the world, in such places as the CNSM of Paris, Rutgers University, and Tel-Aviv Zubin Mehta School of Music.
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Her recordings are highly praised by critics, receiving such awards as Diapason d’Or, Diapason Découverte, Arte Best CD, Gramophone upcoming artist, and Sélection Le Monde. Her Montgeroult recording, released by Orchid Classics, received a Critic’s Choice of the Year 2017 of the Gramophone Magazine and Choice of France Musique. She performed as soloist with conductors such as Claus Peter Flor and Andris Nelsons, and has had chamber music collaborations with the Ebène and Modigliani quartets, as well as violinist Daniel Lozakovich.
Edna Stern is always in search of combining various genres and disciplines and has collaborated in past years with theater/film director Amos Gitaï as well as composer and poet Tatiana Svetlova, and Etoile/Leading Principal Dancer from the Paris Opera, Agnès Letestu.
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Sharing and communicating with her public and especially transmitting to the younger generation her passion and knowledge of music, became an essential component of her practice.
She has published her first book “Interpreting and understanding piano music: Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier” and has created, with children’s poet Tatiana Svetlova, a multimedia show inspired by Schumann’s Carnaval, aiming to initiate children from all ages to Schumann’s musical world.
She is especially known for her Bach interpretations which received awards and critical praise throughout Europe (Gold Diapason, Arte Best cd, 10/10 ClassicToday, 4 stars Classica Magazine).
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“With Edna Stern we avoid the clichés. Her playing is neither romantic nor baroque. It takes on perfectly the serious tone of the composer without falling into coldness or rigidity. It is at the same time an instrumental revelation and a clear sign that music is indeed alive.”-Mathias Heizmann, Arte/2009
While studying with Krystian Zimerman at the Basel Hochschule in Switzerland, she also took advantage of the famous Schola Cantorum Basilensis and its collection of authentic instruments, developing thus another facet to her musical approach. For the 2010 celebration of the birth of Chopin at the Paris Museum of instruments of the Paris Philharmonie, she was chosen as the pianist to record for their series on the museum’s original instrument, a Pleyel from 1842. This recording was released with Naïve and got enthusiastic reviews:
“The subtle chemistry of a successful Chopin. This CD has eclipsed all that we’ve heard so far in the commemoration of the bicentenary of Chopin’s birth.”-Katchi Sinna, Muzikzen 2010
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Her interest in different instruments and sounds set her apart as a Mozart player and her recording of Mozart’s Concerti was chosen in France by the newspaper Le Monde as one of the 10 top CD’s of 2010, and was as well praised in the German and English critique:
“It is fascinating to hear Edna Stern’s perfect, mature and effortless technique, which she does not however use for the purpose of bragging, but puts discreetly at the service of music. She succeeds to the extent of completely disappearing behind the music… developing a whole unexpected wealth of nuances and a variety of tone colors. …a spontaneous joyful playing with beauty and respect: my Mozart- Ideal through this CD has become much closer.”-Bayrische Rundfunk, 2010
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“This is an artist with a delicate touch who likes to shape every detail of phrasing and articulation as if polishing a tiny gem.”-Gramophone Magazine, 2011
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Edna Stern has a special interest in interpreting and rediscovering forgotten composers. Her recording “Piano of Enlightenment” presented the music of nowadays under-estimated composers such as Galuppi and C.P. E. Bach alongside pieces by J.S. Bach, Haydn and Mozart. Her Montgeroult recording published by Orchid Classics was awarded a Critic’s Choice of the Year 2017 by Gramophone Magazine and Choice France Musique.
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BBC Magazine writes:“Stern, playing an 1860 Pleyel trumps Bruno Robillard and Nicolas Stavy’s recordings in colour, style and panache. Textures shimmer in the Etude No. 37, the melody speaks eloquently in No. 26 and in the D minor No. 107, the shades of Chopin Revolutionary Etude are made obvious.” And Gramophone: “Edna Stern deserves the highest praise for resurrecting it, and has the fleet fingers and sensitive musicianship necessary to make the very best case for it.”
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A very meaningful and important program she has been playing these last few years features Sonatas written by Jewish Composers from Theresinstadt. She has been the first to perform and record Karel Reiner’s 2nd Piano Sonata “Victory”. Her performance in New York earned her an immediate invitation to perform in Los Angeles at the Colburn School of Music as part of the “Recovered Voices” project of conductor James Conlon.
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Edna Stern recorded seventeen albums spanning the Baroque (4x J.S. Bach, C.P.E. Bach), Classical (Mozart Concerti, Piano of Enlightenment, 2x Beethoven Sonatas, Montgeroult, Johann Simon Mayr Concerti, Schubert) Romantic (2xSchumann, 2xChopin) and 20th century (Fire of Black and White album available on AudioNote) periods.
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More recently, Edna Stern focuses on developing other aspect of her musical practice that she finds essential, with the goal to transmit her love and knowledge of music to the younger generation. She wrote a book about Bach’s Well Tempered Keyboard and Interpretation, available on all Amazon markets, whose goal is to help pianists who want to play Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier and transmit to the reader – anyone interested in music or in art in general – what is, and what goes into the decisions surrounding a musical interpretation. What goes on in this passage from notes to sound. The vast pool of decisions and their consequences for further decisions, and their impact on how the piece sounds at the end.
She is also collaborating with composer and children’s poet Tatiana Svetlova on the show “Carnival Party!” which leads children into the magical world of Schumann’s imagination, both as a way to introduce them to music and art, as well as in the hope of firing their own imagination. The show weaves Svetlova’s narrative through Schumann’s music (Carnaval Op. 9) with projected animations. The children are led into a world of music, theatre, storytelling and literature.
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Blending poetry and music is also at the heart of her upcoming project with her own compositions. After having composed her first two piano pieces “To-nal or not to-nal” and “Kidnapped: 7.X.2023” (published by Musica Mundana Gmbh), Edna Stern has turned to the world of songs and has set a series of poems by Leah Goldberg into music.