Andrew Rangell

Pianist Andrew Rangell has approached core keyboard literature stretching from Beethoven through the modernists of the 20th century with original and occasionally unorthodox insights. Since attaining senior-citizen standing and joining the Steinway & Sons roster, his output in the studio has accelerated rather than diminished.

Born in Chicago in 1948, Rangell spent his childhood in Colorado. His sibling Nelson Rangell has built a thriving career as a smooth jazz saxophonist and flutist. At the Juilliard School in New York, Andrew completed studies through the doctoral level under Beveridge Webster, Josef Raieff, and David Burge. Receipt of a Malraux Award from the Concert Artists Guild propelled his recital activity onto prominent stages, including appearances at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the 92nd Street Y in New York, while establishing him as a regular presence in Boston’s concert life. Between 1977 and 1985 he held a teaching post in piano at Dartmouth College. His programs frequently incorporated distinctive interpretive choices; during performances of Ives’ Piano Sonata No. 2 (“Concord”), he sometimes supplied the optional flute line by whistling.

Rangell’s profile rose further in the late 1980s through the start of his recording activity, appearances at the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York’s Lincoln Center, and the first of multiple traversals of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas in concert. In 1991 nerve and muscle injuries affecting one hand interrupted his schedule. He remained largely absent from the platform for seven years, reconstructing his technique through therapy while preserving certain adjusted movements even after recovery.

Through the early 2000s he recorded chiefly for the Dorian label, releasing distinctive anthologies such as A Recital of Sentimental Works alongside standard repertoire. In 2004 he transferred to the Bridge label and documented major Bach compositions. Because his eclectic programming aligned with the Steinway & Sons mission, the company signed him in 2012. Under that imprint he has issued recordings of late Beethoven, Bach, Chopin, the album A Folk Song Runs Through It (highlighting 20th-century Eastern European nationalist composers including Bartók), and, in 2017, A Bouquet of Beethoven, which pairs sonatas with some of the composer’s lesser-known works. Entering his eighth decade, Rangell has maintained an undiminished recording schedule for Steinway & Sons, releasing the recital From the Early 20th... in 2018, his first children’s album Bach 4 Kids... in 2019, and two further projects in 2020: a recording of Bach’s English Suites, BWV 806-811, and the recital A Bouquet of Bach.