Biography
A specialist in modern composition, pianist Steven Beck has partnered with numerous leading creators and performing groups while maintaining a parallel commitment to earlier works, among them an annual presentation of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, aboard the floating Brooklyn venue Bargemusic in New York.
Born January 21, 1978, in Springfield, Virginia, Beck studied at the Juilliard School under Seymour Lipkin, Peter Serkin, and Bruce Brubaker. His first orchestral engagement took place with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, after which he traveled to Japan as soloist with the New York Symphonic Ensemble. Subsequent concerto appearances have included the New York Philharmonic, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and the Mariinsky Orchestra in St. Petersburg, Russia.
In New York he became a regular participant in contemporary programs presented by Speculum Musicae and the New York New Music Ensemble. He belongs to The Knights (formerly The Knights of the Many-Sided Table), to Future in REverse (FIRE), and, together with Susan Grace, to the duo Quattro Mani. His first commercial recording, released in 2003 on the Sequitur label, featured Elliott Carter’s Double Concerto alongside harpsichordist Sara Laimon.
Beck has worked directly with composers such as Carter, Pierre Boulez, and George Crumb; during the 2011–2012 season he performed music by Charles Wuorinen at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. He has also continued to play standard repertory, appearing with the New York Philharmonic in Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals in one of his final engagements before the coronavirus pandemic that began in 2020. By 2022 his discography encompassed roughly forty releases, the majority devoted to new music, although he contributed several volumes to the Cascade label’s complete Beethoven edition. In 2014 he recorded Peter Lieberson’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Odense Symphony Orchestra in Denmark for Bridge Records; that association continued with a 2022 solo album containing George Walker’s Five Piano Sonatas.
Born January 21, 1978, in Springfield, Virginia, Beck studied at the Juilliard School under Seymour Lipkin, Peter Serkin, and Bruce Brubaker. His first orchestral engagement took place with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, after which he traveled to Japan as soloist with the New York Symphonic Ensemble. Subsequent concerto appearances have included the New York Philharmonic, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and the Mariinsky Orchestra in St. Petersburg, Russia.
In New York he became a regular participant in contemporary programs presented by Speculum Musicae and the New York New Music Ensemble. He belongs to The Knights (formerly The Knights of the Many-Sided Table), to Future in REverse (FIRE), and, together with Susan Grace, to the duo Quattro Mani. His first commercial recording, released in 2003 on the Sequitur label, featured Elliott Carter’s Double Concerto alongside harpsichordist Sara Laimon.
Beck has worked directly with composers such as Carter, Pierre Boulez, and George Crumb; during the 2011–2012 season he performed music by Charles Wuorinen at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. He has also continued to play standard repertory, appearing with the New York Philharmonic in Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals in one of his final engagements before the coronavirus pandemic that began in 2020. By 2022 his discography encompassed roughly forty releases, the majority devoted to new music, although he contributed several volumes to the Cascade label’s complete Beethoven edition. In 2014 he recorded Peter Lieberson’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Odense Symphony Orchestra in Denmark for Bridge Records; that association continued with a 2022 solo album containing George Walker’s Five Piano Sonatas.
Albums
Stockhausen: Tierkreis & Schwartz: The Neon Pterodactyl
2025
Maze of Infinite Forms
2025
Intermezzo
2024
Tre Danze Latine
2024
Michael Shapiro's Yiddish Quartet and Piano Quintet
2024
Michael Shapiro: Passages
2022
George Walker: Piano Sonatas
2022
To The Distant Beloved
2021
Transformations
2021
Scott Lee: Through the Mangrove Tunnels
2020
Archangel
2019
Louis Karchin: Dark Mountains / Distant Lights
2019
Lieberson: Viola Concerto & Piano Concerto No. 3
2014
Playing New York
2014
Singles
