“another of the year’s excellent piano albums …
celebrates both [Michael Tilson Thomas] and his influences” -
The Arts Fuse, reviewing the world premiere of Michael Tilson Thomas Piano Suite “Upon Further Reflection”
”Upon Further Reflection”, John’s first solo release, named by "The Arts Fuse" as “Top 10 Classical Performances and Recordings of 2022”
American pianist John Wilson has performed extensively in North America, and Europe. In 2022 John released his solo debut album on Avie Records which featured the premiere of MTT’s three-movement suite for piano, “Upon Further Reflection”. In 2019, John premiered a portion of “Upon Further Reflection” that was broadcast live on Medici.TV to an audience of over 50,000. As a soloist he has performed with the San Francisco Symphony, New World Symphony, Chamber Orchestra of New York, Chamber Orchestra of San Antonio, Napa Valley Symphony Orchestra, and both the New Amsterdam Symphony and Orchestra Camerata Notturna in New York, NY. He makes his Marin Symphony debut in April 2024 playing Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 1 with Daniel Stewart, conductor.
He most recently won 1st prize in the 2019 International Respighi Prize Competition, 1st Prize in the American Competition 2021 and in 2023, their foundation awarded him the Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the Performance of American Music for his World Premiere Recording of “Upon Further Reflection”. Wilson has had the pleasure of being a part of numerous world premieres, performing including those by Michael Tilson Thomas, John Adams, Samuel Adams, Timo Andres, Judith Lang Zaimont, Steve Reich and many others.
John is pianist at the San Francisco Symphony, Principal Keyboard of Marin Symphony, San Diego Symphony, and Oakland Symphony, and has performed as Guest Principal Keyboard of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
He will perform as pianist on the 2024 and has performed on the 2023 European tour with the San Francisco Symphony performing chamber and orchestral works under Mo. Esa-Pekka Salonen, and on the 2018 Carnegie Hall Tour under MTT.
A devoted chamber musician and collaborator, he has appeared in chamber ensembles with musicians of the San Francisco Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, and has appeared in close collaboration with violinist Joshua Bell, cellist Johannes Moser, violinist Anthony Marwood, sopranos Audra McDonald and Bernadette Peters, and tenor, Andrea Bocelli. John has recorded for Avie Records, Affetto, MSR Classics, and performances can be heard on BBC 3 Radio, Medici.tv and WQXR. John played piano on the 2021 Grammy-winning recording of Michael Tilson Thomas “Meditations on Rilke”, winning “Best Classical Compendium.” John has recently released his second album on Avie Records, “Rachmaninoff • Gershwin: Transcriptions by Earl Wild” to high critical acclaim, and the album’s leading track Rachmaninoff’s “The Dream” has surpassed over 1 million streams on all digital streaming platforms.
““Pianist John Wilson plays all the repertoire on this recording gorgeously. Most note worthy is his tone, which is
almost always rich, warm, and expressive, even in massive chordal statements and brilliant passagework”.
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““The Wild set, with their knowing adaptations of familiar tunes, fit smartly alongside Reflection. And Wilson, whose playing is magnificently secure and flawlessly balanced, gives a reading of the heptalogy that rivals Wild’s own for character; it exceeds it for recorded quality.””