In 2017 Drew Petersen added winner of the American Pianists Awards to a decorated young career that already included prizes from the Leeds International Piano Competition, the Hilton Head International Piano Competition, Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Competition, and the New York Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition. Petersen was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2018. Petersen graduated cum laude from Harvard at age 19 with a Bachelor of Liberal Arts in Social Science and did his undergraduate and graduate music studies at the Juilliard School, the former as a recipient of the prestigious Kovner Fellowship. He has recently been accepted into the Artist Diploma program at the Juilliard School. On this release, Peterson tackles the music of Samuel Barber, Judith Lang Zaimont, Elliott Carter, Charles Ives, and Charles Tomlinson Griffes. Griffes’ Fantasy Pieces puts Peterson’s full musicianship on display as the work epitomizes the composer’s sensual, full bodied keyboard aesthetic, fusing late Romanticism, French Impressionism, and Russian mysticism. Also notable is Barber’s Sonata, which remains a go to piece for young pianists seeking a surefire yet substantial American crowd pleaser.
