Danae Dörken - Piano

BIOGRAPHY

"Is the young pianist the discovery of the year?" asked the classical music magazine Cre­scendo – and answered in the affirmative. The reviewers of the magazine Concerti also con­sider her to be "on her way right to the top". The German-Greek pianist Danae Dörken belongs to the elite of a new generation of internationally sought-after artists and captivates audiences and fellow musicians alike with her breath­taking technique, exceptional stage presence and musical depth.

Danae Dörken was already supported by Yehudi Menuhin when she was seven years old and caught the attention of audiences in leading European concert halls early on with "her sparkling joy of playing" (Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger). After studying with the internationally revered piano pedagogue Karl-Heinz Kämmerling and with the renowned soloist and teacher Lars Vogt, she is now a regular guest with leading orchestras such as the Orchestre de chambre de Paris, the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester, the Münster Symphony Orchestra, the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Komische Oper Berlin, the Philharmonie Baden-Baden, the Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Nordic Chamber Or­chestra, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, the Norr­landsoperan Symphony, the Staatsphilharmonie Nürnberg and the Staatskapelle Weimar.

Danae Dörken has performed at London's Wigmore Hall, the Philharmonie de Paris, the Wie­ner Konzerthaus, the Mozarteum Salzburg, the Tonhalle Zurich, the Bozar in Brussels, the Megaron in Athens, the Brucknerhaus Linz, the Philharmonie Köln, the Gasteig Munich, the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, the Tonhalle Düsseldorf, the Alte Oper Frankfurt and the Beethoven-Haus Bonn. She regularly performs at important festivals such as the Kissin­ger Sommer, the Schwetzinger Festspiele, LuganoMusica, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik­festival, the Dresdner Musikfestspiele, the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the GAIA Music Festival, the Sommerliche Musiktage Hitzacker and the prestigious chamber mu­sic festival "Spannungen" in Heimbach.

The 2024/25 season is full of highlights for Danae Dörken. She will appear at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York with her long-time chamber music partner Se­bastian Manz. As a piano soloist, she will perform Gershwin's Piano Concerto and de Falla's Nights in Spanish Gardens in concert with the Kiel Philharmonic Orchestra, Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto with the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz and Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto with the Bad Reichenhall Philharmonic Orchestra. She has also been invited to return to the orchestra of the Komische Oper Berlin, where she will perform the piano part in Scriabin's Prometheus under the baton of James Gaffigan.

As part of a piano duo with her sister Kiveli, she will be performing at numerous concerts, including some at the Festspielfrühling Rügen, the spring festival forming part of the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where in addition she will also be performing with percussionist Alexei Gerassimez.

The album GLASS TWO, a joint project with the Luxembourg vibraphonist and composer Pas­cal Schumacher, will be released at the end of 2024. This programme of works by Philip Glass and Schumacher will be performed at the Elbphilharmonie and other venues.

On the occasion of the 100th birthday of the Greek national composer Mikis Theodorakis in 2025, a very personal album by Danae Dörken will be released on the Berlin Classics / EDEL label. It will include Theodorakis' Piano Concerto Helikon and his First Suite for Piano and Orchestra, recorded with the Staatskapelle Weimar conducted by Kornilios Michailidis.

Last year, Danae Dörken released the duo CD Apollo & Dionysus (Berlin Classics) with her sister Kiveli and three albums with the French oboist Philippe Tondre on the Klarthe label. Her landmark CD recording of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 and Mendelssohn's rarely heard Second Piano Concerto with the Royal Northern Sinfonia under Lars Vogt received glowing reviews. In 2012, Danae Dörken released her debut album of works by Leoš Janáček. Her solo CD with Fantasies by Schumann, Schubert and C.P.E. Bach (ARS Production) won the ICMA Award. Her latest album Odyssee (Berlin Classics) was received with critical acclaim and nominated for several international music awards.

Danae and Kiveli Dörken founded the Molyvos International Music Festival on the Greek island of Lesbos in 2015. In addition to the large annual summer festival, they organize benefit con­certs and events throughout Germany in which the festival's artists (including Sebastian Manz, Marlis Petersen, Linus Roth and Maximilian Hornung) participate. Danae Dörken's commit­ment to Greece, to supporting refugees and to strengthening the musical connections between Greece and Germany have repeatedly been the subject of reports on the TV programmes tttand 3sat kulturzeit, as well as on the broadcasting station WDR and in numerous other media.

Status: September 2024