Renowned pianist and conductor Jeffrey Kahane is recognized by audiences around the world for his mastery of diverse repertoire from Bach to Gershwin. He has established an international reputation as a truly versatile artist, equally sought-after as conductor, soloist and chamber musician. Kahane will take up the position of Music Director of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra in the 2005/2006 season. He currently holds the position of Music Director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Santa Rosa Symphony, and is Artistic Director of the Green Music Festival in Sonoma County.

Performing at the highest level as a soloist, he has maintained his reputation as a pianist ãversatile in styles, superior in technique, unlimited in horizonsä (LA Times) since he made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1983. Since then, Kahane has given recitals in many of the nationâs great concert halls including New York , Chicago , Boston , San Francisco , Los Angeles , and Atlanta . He appears as soloist with leading orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic and the Leipzig Gewandhaus. Kahane is equally well-known for his collaborations with artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Dawn Upshaw, Joshua Bell, and Thomas Quasthoff, and he often appears with leading chamber ensembles such as the Emerson String Quartet.

Kahane made his conducting debut at the Oregon Bach Festival in 1988 and since then, he has made many successful guest conducting appearances with orchestras such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Houston Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Camerata Salzburg, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields in London, and with Royal Philharmonic of Galicia in Spain. In addition, he appears annually as both pianist and conductor at the Oregon Bach Festival, and has also been conducting at the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival since 1992.

Recent highlights of Kahaneâs career have included his highly-successful conducting debut with the New York Philharmonic, return engagements conducting the Houston and Seattle Symphonies and performances of Coplandâs Piano Concerto with the San Francisco Symphony.In the summer of 2003, he gave highly-acclaimed performances of all five Beethoven piano concerti over two consecutive nights at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, a project that he repeated at Ravinia with the Chicago Symphony in the summer of 2004.

His recordings include works of Gershwin and Bernstein with Yo-Yo Ma for SONY, Paul Schoenfieldâs ãFour Parablesä with the New World Symphony conducted by John Nelson for Decca/Argo, the Strauss ãBurleskeä on Telarc with the Cincinnati Symphony under Jesus Lopez-Cobos, and the complete Brandenburg Concerti (on harpsichord) with the Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra under Helmuth Rilling on the Haenssler label. He has also recorded the complete works for violin and piano by Schubert with Joseph Swensen for RCA, Bachâs Sinfonias and Partita #4 in D Major for Nonesuch, and Bernsteinâs ãAge of Anxietyä for Virgin Records, which was nominated by Gramophone magazine for their ãRecord of the Yearä award. As a conductor, Kahane has recorded a disc of music by Ned Rorem for BMG Classics and most recently he conducted a recording of the complete Bach Violin Concerti with Hilary Hahn and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra for Deutsche Grammophon.

As music director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Santa Rosa Symphony, Kahane received much recognition for his innovative programming and also for his commitment to education and community involvement. His instigation of a family concert series in both L.A. and Santa Rosa have attracted wider audiences to the classical concert hall in both cities, and in 2002, the Santa Rosa Symphony was awarded a prestigious Met-Life Award for Community Engagement.

Dedicated to working with young musicians, in 1991 Kahane co-founded the Gardner Chamber Orchestra, an ensemble of outstanding students and recent graduates of the major schools of music in the Boston area, and served as Artistic Director and Conductor from 1991-1995.

A First Prize winner at the 1983 Rubinstein Competition and finalist at the 1981 Van Cliburn Competition, Jeffrey Kahane has also been honored with awards including the 1983 Avery Fisher Career Grant and the first Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award in 1987.