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New York City-based pianist Jeanne-Minette Cilliers has been called “a pianistic poet”, garnering rave reviews for her color-rich and imaginative performances.
A native of South Africa, she has received numerous awards and prizes since she began playing at age three, and made her orchestral debut at twelve playing Joaquín Turina’s Rapsodia sinfónica. She won her first national competition in 1990, continuing to capture grand prizes in, among others, the Indianapolis Matinee Musicale and the Kalamazoo Young Artists Bach Competition, as well as the silver medal in the 2000 Nena Wideman Concerto Competition. She has won prizes in all of South Africa's major competitions, including the 1999 Unisa Overseas Music Scholarship Competition and two special prizes at the Ninth Unisa International Piano Competition (2000).
Past solo appearances include the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., and the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago.
Increasingly in demand as a collaborator, Ms. Cilliers has performed with various instrumentalists and singers, including cellist Frans Helmerson, tenor Carlos Montané and baritone Håkan Hagegård. During the summer of 2005 she joined Mr. Hagegård for a song recital at the Carl Larsson museum in Sundborn, Sweden – the first performers invited to this unique monument of Swedish culture. She has also played for several master class series of Mr. Hagegård’s at his music center, HageGården, in Brunskog, Sweden. During the summer of 2004, she served as official pianist for the German for Singers program at Middlebury College, VT. From 2001-2002, she was affiliated with the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, PA, as staff pianist. Ms. Cilliers has performed cello-piano works in Austria, Germany, Israel, and the United States. As an invited guest, she performed chamber music at the 1996 Irving S. Gilmore Keyboard Festival.
With a keen interest in staged and interdisciplinary performances, Ms. Cilliers directed and performed a 2005 critically acclaimed Stockholm production of excerpts from Enrique Granados’ Goyescas, joined by a flamenco dancer and video projections.
Ms. Cilliers has recorded on a regular basis for the South African Broadcasting Company, and has been featured in SABC television and radio programs. In May 1993 she received two performance licentiates in chamber music and vocal accompanying (equal to an arts diploma), both cum laude, from the University of South Africa.
Ms. Cilliers earned her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees (with distinction) from the University of Michigan in 1995 and 1997, respectively, while studying with fellow South African Anton Nel. As a student of Menahem Pressler's, she earned an Artist's Diploma from Indiana University in 2000. Currently she is the first and only Artist Diploma candidate in vocal accompanying at the Manhattan School of Music, working with Warren Jones.
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