Renate Rohlfing, Piano

Biography

Pianist Renate Rohlfing is rapidly garnering a name as a versatile and accomplished collaborative pianist. Equally comfortable in instrumental and vocal music, Ms. Rohlfing has performed at some of the most prestigious festivals and venues throughout North America, Asia, and Europe, including the Ravinia Festival, Cité Universitaire Internationale de Paris, Musiekgebouw, Carnegie Hall, and the David Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, where she recently accompanied soprano Anna Netrebko in a gala performance. Also active as an orchestral pianist, vocal coach, and piano teacher, she retains an extensive private studio in New York City.

Renate Rohlfing began piano studies at the age of 4 with Professor Peter Coraggio in her native Honolulu, Hawaii. After winning the New Orleans International Concerto competition at the age of 15, she made her orchestral debut with the New Orleans Symphony performing Tchaikovsky's Concerto No. 1. That same year, she toured Japan on a solo concert tour, with concerts in Fukuoka, Kagoshima, and Tokyo, among others. After winning the American Music Teacher's Association First Prize at 17, she debuted at Carnegie Hall. Ms. Rohlfing was subsequently invited to study at the Manhattan School of Music as a scholarship student, where she obtained her Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance under the tutelage of Solomon Mikowsky and Daniel Epstein. Further studies led her to SUNY Stony Brook and the Juilliard School, where she received her Master of Music degree in Collaborative Piano, studying with Margo Garrett, Jonathan Feldman, JJ Penna, and Diane Richardson.

Ms. Rohlfing's passion for vocal accompanying has led to numerous prestigious opportunities in this field. She returns, in 2013, to the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, where she has served as a resident pianist in the Steans Music Insitute for the previous two years, performing in concerts and recitals under the festival's auspices. In recent seasons, she was selected to be a Stern Fellow at Pepperdine's "Songfest" festival in California and served as a pianist-in-residence for Marilyn Horne's "The Song Continues..." series at Carnegie Hall. In high demand as a vocal accompanist, Ms. Rohlfing's recent concerts include performances with soprano Julia Bullock, baritone Timothy McDevitt, and soprano Sarah Wolfson. She was selected to play for the Juilliard School's annual Vocal Arts Honors Recital at Peter Jay Sharp Theater in 2010, and has performed in numerous other vocal recitals at the school. Upcoming performances include further recitals with Sarah Wolfson under the auspices of Concert Artists Guild and Julia Bullock under the auspices of Young Concert Artists. Her forays into operatic repertoire include music staff assignments for Juilliard opera productions of "La finta giardiniera" by Mozart and the US premiere of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies' "Kommilitonen", rated by TimeOut as the #1 Classical Music event of 2011.

Equally familiar with instrumental repertoire, Ms. Rohlfing's chamber music credits include appearances through the Fondation des États-Unis, Alliance Française, New World SYmphony, Toronto Summer Music Festival, Methow Valley Arts, and numerous radio stations including WUOL, WFMT, and KHPR. Allan Kozinn of the New York Times hailed her interpretation of various works by Webern as "graceful yet variegated." Internationally, she has participated at festivals in Canada, France, Spain and Austria. A strong advocate of contemporary music, she enjoyed the special privilege of attending the International Ensemble Modern Akademie in Schwaz, Austria, where she worked with composer Wolfgang Rihm.

Ms. Rohlfing is also a highly experienced and versatile orchestral pianist. She was invited to join the New World Symphony Orchestra in 2012, and has performed both orchestral and chamber works at the orchestra's home in Miami. Previously, she served as the Orchestral Piano Fellow for the Juilliard Orchestra, and participated in concerts including works by Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Bartok, Stravinsky, Adams, and Respighi, among others. She has had the privilege of playing under the baton of leading conductors including Alan Gilbert, Robert Spano, John Adams, Larry Rachleff, and Jeffrey Milarsky, in venues that include Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and Royal Albert Hall for a special performance at the London Proms.

Beyond performance, Renate Rohlfing is rapidly gaining recognition as a vocal coach for singers. Specializing in German, French, and Polish repertoire, her coaching studio comprises singers from the Houston Grand Opera, Opera Theater Saint Louis, the Metropolitan Opera, Los Angeles Opera, and many other leading companies.

Ms. Rohlfing is the winner of numerous honors and awards, including the Presser Scholarship, the Sorel Foundation scholarship through New Triad for the Collaborative Arts, the William Petschek Scholarship, the Juilliard Alumni Scholarship, and the Avenir Foundation research grant. The latter included a residency at the Arnold Schoenberg Center in Vienna, where she worked closely with the composer's manuscripts and researched Schoenbergian performance practice.