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Craig Ketter
Pianist

 






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Critically acclaimed for “transporting the listeners to extraordinary heights” and “into a world beyond time and space,” pianist Craig Ketter is known for playing with powerhouse sonority combined with long-lined, dulcet lyricism. Mr. Ketter has performed as soloist with the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony, the Sacramento Philharmonic, the Oakland East Bay Symphony, the Mobile Symphony, the Raleigh Symphony, the Garden State Philharmonic, the Durham Symphony, the Rocky Ridge Music Festival Orchestra, and the American Festival for the Arts Orchestra. His solo concerts have taken him to Mexico, Argentina, Barbados, France, Germany, Japan, and across the United States and Canada.
Mr. Ketter regularly joins forces with international singers and chamber groups. Venues include NPR’s Performance Today series, CBS Sunday Morning, Sirius Satellite Radio, Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, La Huaca de Atlapa in Panama City, the Tanglewood Music Festival, the Savannah Music Festival, Bay Chamber Concerts in Rockport, Maine, “Music in the Mountains” in Colorado, and The Marilyn Horne Foundation. Musicians he has collaborated with include flutists Eugenia Zukerman and Carol Wincenc, clarinetists Stephen Williamson, Ricardo Morales, and Jon Manasse, cellists Robert deMaine and Eric Bartlett, violinists Kelly Hall-Tompkins, Roy Malan, and Paul Huang, and singers Renee Fleming, Deborah Voigt, Christine Goerke, Samuel Ramey, Paul Plishka, Nathan Gunn, Ben Heppner, Cliff Forbis, Francisco Casanova, and Robert White. He has also performed with the esteemed actress Claire Bloom.
Craig Ketter began piano studies at the age of seven, giving his first solo recital at the age of ten. He has won top prizes in numerous competitions including the Young Keyboard Artists Association International Piano Competition, the North Carolina Symphony Young Artists Competition, and the Kingsville International Piano Competition. He later won first prizes in the Bartok-Kabalevsky-Prokofiev International Piano Competition, the Richardson Awards National Piano Competition, and the South Orange Symphony of New Jersey Young Artists Competition. He was also awarded the Saunderson Award at the Coleman Chamber Music Competition in Los Angeles, California with the Meliora Winds.
Craig Ketter received his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees from the Eastman School of Music under the tutelage of Nelita True and Barry Snyder, where he also taught as Mr. Snyder’s assistant. He continued post-graduate studies with Yoheved Kaplinsky and John Perry. Complementing his performing with teaching, Mr. Ketter has presented master classes throughout the United States and Argentina. He has been a faculty member of the Rocky Ridge Music Festival in Colorado and has served as Chair of the Piano Faculty at the American Festival for the Arts in Houston, Texas. He is currently on the faculty of New Jersey City University. Mr. Ketter currently resides in Fair Lawn, New Jersey with his wife, Canadian soprano Valerie Gonzalez, and his sons Isaac and Daniel.
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