Chopin; Prelude op.28 no.24 in D minor

Pianist Christopher Guzman regularly performs for audiences throughout North America, Europe and Asia, while maintaining an active teaching schedule. He is a multiple prizewinner in many international competitions, including the Walter M. Naumburg Competition, the Seoul International Music Competition and the Isang Yun Competition of South Korea. Recently, Mr. Guzman garnered the grand prize (Blanche Selva) and several special prizes at the 10th Concours International de Piano d’Orléans in Orléans, France. This major European prize will allow him to record a CD of modern music in France in June 2013, as well as tour the country giving masterclasses and performing recitals throughout 2013 and 2014.

Mr. Guzman has performed as soloist with many large ensembles, including the San Antonio Symphony, the Fort Worth Symphony, the Corpus Christi Symphony and The EOS Orchestra of New York City. He has performed concerti with the Juilliard Orchestra in Alice Tully Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and in Spoleto, Italy during the orchestra’s first summer residency at the 2003 Festival Dei Due Mondi. Mr. Guzman has appeared in recital in such varied venues as Carnegie’s Weill Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, and Spoleto’s Teatro Caio Melisso.  

An avid chamber musician, Mr. Guzman has performed in such venues as Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, Leipzig’s Gewandhaus, the Kennedy Center, San Francisco Performances, the Vancouver Recital Series and others. He performs regularly with some of the world’s most exciting soloist and with members of major symphony orchestras; his recital with violinist Ilya Gringolts on National Public Radio’s Saint Paul Sunday continues to broadcast across the United States and online. He continually performs with members of the world’s finest orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, to name a few.

Of special interest to Mr. Guzman is music of our time. He has collaborated with one of the nation’s preeminent contemporary chamber ensembles, Speculum Musicae, and numerous times with the New Juilliard Ensemble, including tours of the U.S. and France. The New York Times hailed his “coiled, explosive playing” of works by Christopher Theofanidis and Joseph Pereira at New York’s Society for Ethical Culture in 2002. He is a member of Second Instrumental Unit, a provocative new music ensemble based in the Northeast, and has participated in world premieres by such composers as Donald Martino, Bernd Franke and Paul Schoenfield.  

Born in Texas, Christopher Guzman began studying piano at age nine and violoncello two years later. He has studied at the University of Texas at Austin, New England Conservatory, and at the Juilliard School. He has taught classes at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, State University of New York at Buffalo, and at Trinity University in San Antonio, TX. He is currently Assistant Professor of Piano at Penn State University.

Chopin; Prelude op.28 no.24 in D minor

Christopher Guzman piano