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“In a masterful performance. . . . Barbara Lieurance made us wonder why pianists focus so much on the keys rather than the entire instrument. . . . it was a visual and musical feast.”

MLive, Gilmore International Keyboard Festival performance

Known for her innovative performances and her daring programming, Ms. Lieurance brings new music to concert halls around the United States and Europe. Her current program Inside the Piano, Outside the Box came to fruition through an artist residency at the Banff Center for the Arts in Canada – a program exploring non-traditional virtuosity, and featuring works for bowed piano along with new commissions from young composers. IPOB has been performed in Canada, the United States, and Europe in such venues as the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival. The Metroland of New York writes that Ms. Lieurance “wowed audiences”, the Maine Sunday Telegram notes that “at the end of the concert, Ms. Lieurance had. . . the audience standing” and the Kalamazoo Gazette reports a “masterful performance. . . a visual and musical feast”.

Ms. Lieurance’s workshops on new music and non-traditional piano performance techniques have been presented in many venues, including the Berklee College of Music, University of British Columbia, Western Michigan University, and Kalamazoo College. Ms. Lieurance performed two tours with the Gilmore Festival’s Keys to Education program, bringing avant-garde music to hundreds of schoolchildren in Michigan. Among the awards that Ms. Lieurance has received are the Emerging Artist Grant from the Gilmore Foundation, the Presser Scholar Award, and the Paloheimo Foundation Award. For more information, please visit www.lieurance.com.

“Her tender nuances, the lovely tones she brought forth, and her exquisite sense of timing and musical structure richly demonstrated how demonstrating how enchanting and profound this music is.”

Kalamazoo Gazette, Gilmore International Keyboard Festival performance

An absolutely stunning performance, with a rare commitment, and complete mastery. Highly recommended!

Henk Guittartfounder of the Schoenberg Quartet and faculty Royal Northern College of Music

Berklee composition students are still talking about your performance demonstration with awe and excitement. Your presentation in February was so much more than informative and impressive; it was magical. The Composition Department, and especially, our students, can’t wait for you to return.

Arnold Friedman(2013-2014) Chair, Composition Department, Berklee School of Music

Barbara Lieurance’s virtuosity is that all too rare combination of imagination and precision. Most importantly, as a teacher and performer she has an uncanny ability to absorb each listener in every sound, and in the unending excitement of discovery.

Leslie TungChair Emeritus of the Department of Music, Kalamazoo College

Barbara Lieurance delivered a definitive performance of C. Curtis-Smith’s Rhapsodies. She negotiated the complexities of the piece with such grace and musicianship that the listener would hardly understand the difficulties and extreme demands placed upon the performer. Her performances of early Cage were sublime and communicated the deep sensitivity of the composer often missed by the average pianist. Any audience would feel as though they received a gift after hearing a performance by Ms. Lieurance.

David ColsonDavid Colson, Director of the School of Music, Western Michigan University

I feel so fortunate to have heard Barbara’s stunning performance of the Curtis-Smith Rhapsodies. . . . I was simply mesmerized by her virtuosity–and to have watched this performed from memory was truly mind blowing. It really made me think about all the horizons still left to explore inside the piano, particularly with the haunting and alluring sound of bowed strings. This is an absolute must; if you a see a concert of hers advertised anywhere… DO go!

Thomas HechtHead of Piano Studies, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore

Barabara played [the] Rhapsodies GREAT. It was the best performance I have heard of that piece, including David Burge years ago. I fact, I prefer her performance last night to my own recording

C. Curtis-Smithcomposer

Barbara has exceptional control, skill and poise in her performances of the music of C. Curtis-Smith and John Oliver. It is difficult to describe the kinds of sounds achieved through the use of bows inside the piano, for they are unlike any I have ever heard….truly magical and otherworldly. Rarely does one have the pleasure of hearing completely “new” sounds on a three-hundred year old instrument. One really must hear AND see her to fully grasp her mastery of the instrument.

Penny JohnsonPenny Johnson, Conservatory Instructor of Piano, University of Regina, Canada

Each gesture was dynamic–from the evolving timbres evoked from bowed piano strings during C. Curtis Smith’s “Rhapsodies” to the complexly lyrical textures of Gubaidulina’s “Sonata”–she shaped sound into communicative music. I would unreservedly recommend both concert and the presentation to other educators and music lovers.

Lisa CoonsProfessor of Composition, Western Michigan University. Founding member, “The Collected”