Pianist Marilyn Nonken CONTACT: Ensemble 21 Artists 500 West 111th Street, #3E New York, NY 10025 USA EMAIL & WEBSITE

Pianist MARILYN NONKEN has emerged as one of the most gifted young musicians dedicated to the modern and contemporary repertoires. Upon her 1994 New York debut, she was heralded as "a determined protector of important music" (New York Times). Her Boston debut was distinguished as a highlight of the season (Boston Globe, "Best of '97"); she was named "Best of '99" by the Globe when she returned two years later. The New York Times recently called her "a pianist from music's leading edge."

Ms. Nonken's performances have been presented by Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, IRCAM, the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, the Guggenheim Museum, Miller Theatre, Harvard and Brandeis Universities, the Flea Theatre, Dartmouth and Oberlin Colleges, and the Musikakademie Rheinsberg. An acclaimed chamber musician, she plays with Ensemble 21, the New Music group of which she is Artistic Director and a co-founder, and she appeared with with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the ISCM Chamber Players, the Washington Square Contemporary Players, and Bargemusic.

Seeking to enhance the repertoire, Ms. Nonken has commissioned major works from composers including Milton Babbitt, Michael Finnissy, Tristan Murail, Mario Davidovsky, Jason Eckardt, Jeff Nichols, and David Rakowski. She has given the US premiere of James Dillon's "Spleen" and the German premiere of Esa-Pekka Salonen's "YTA II" and collaborated with composers including Lee Hyla, Andrew Imbrie, and Jonathan Harvey. Additionally, Ms. Nonken maintains within her repertoire works by Barraqué, Boulez, Dallapiccola, Ives, Ligeti, Stockhausen, Webern, and the complete piano works of Arnold Schoenberg.

With a wide-ranging discography featuring releases on New World Records, Koch, Lovely Music, and CRI, Ms. Nonken has recorded music of composers diverse as Salvatore Martirano, Alvin Lucier, David Rakowski, William Albright, and Charles Wuorinen. A new CD of works written for her will be released by CRI in Spring 2001. Upcoming projects include recordings of Tristan Murail's complete piano music (Metier), Morton Feldman's "Triadic Memories" (Mode), and chamber music of Jason Eckardt (Mode, with Ensemble 21).

A student of David Burge at the Eastman School, Ms. Nonken received a Ph.D. degree in musicology from Columbia University. Her writings have been published in Perspectives of New Music, Agni, Current Musicology, and the Journal of the Institute for Studies in American Music. Most recently, she guest edited an issue on performance practice for Contemporary Music Review.

For updated information about Ms. Nonken's tour dates, recordings, repertoire, commissions and other activities, visit her website, address link in Contact box at top of page.

"Ms. Nonken's dominant qualities would be advantages in any music:lightness in attack, clarity of texture, singing lines (and singing chords), variety of nuance, certainty in defining climaxes and in moving toward or away from them, a sense that the end of a movement must matter, as witness her deft conclusion to a brilliant account, at once fantastical and purposeful."
- The New York Times

"Marilyn Nonken performed one of this or any year's best and most demanding recitals of 20th-century piano music"
- The Boston Globe (Best of '97, '99, 2000)

"This pianist enthusiastically explores modern and other contemporary areas where a lot of pianists fear to hang out, and she packs enough artistry and technique for the journey."
- The Village Voice

"The 28-year-old virtuoso Marilyn Nonken glows like a hot furnace during her performances."
- The New York Observer

"The thorny scores of Schoenberg, Davidovsky, and Carter, forbidding and opaque to most pianists, are Nonken's playground."
- The Milwaukee Journal