ABOUT
biography
Born in Brazil, Juliana Steinbach began her musical studies in France, first in Lyon at the Regional Conservatory (CRR), then as a private student of Greek-American pianist Christine Paraschos in Paris. After earning her Baccalaureate, she studied with Bruno Rigutto, Nicholas Angelich and Pierre-Laurent Aimard at Paris Conservatory (CNSM), where she graduated with First Prize in piano (2000) and chamber music (2003). In 2002 she was admitted by unanimity into the post-graduate piano program (Troisième Cycle) in the class of Jacques Rouvier. At this occasion, the Alfred Reinhold Foundation awarded her a Blüthner grand piano. She has also studied under the guidance of Franco Scala at the Accademia Pianistica Internazionale in Imola (Italy), Pnina Salzman in Tel-Aviv (Israel) and Maria João Pires at her Center for the Arts in Belgais (Portugal). She has attended master classes with musicians such as Dmitri Bashkirov, Alicia De Larrocha, Christoph Eschenbach, Péter Frankl, Emanuel Krasovsky and Ferenc Rados. In May 2007 she graduated from The Juilliard School in New York, where she had been a student of Joseph Kalichstein (piano) and the Juilliard String Quartet (chamber music).
She plays a vast concerto repertoire and regularly appears as a soloist with orchestras : Orchestre Colonne, Orchestre de la Garde Républicaine, Orchestre des Lauréats du Conservatoire, Orchestre Symphonique et Lyrique de Paris, Orchestre de Caen, Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice, and Orchestre Symphonique de Toulon (France) ; Orchestre des Jeunes de Fribourg (Switzerland) ; Ensemble Mini in Berlin and Rundfunk Blasorchester in Leipzig (Germany) ; Máv Symphony Orchestra in Budapest and Savaria Symphony Orchestra in Szombathely (Hungary) ; Rishon Le Zion Symphony Orchestra (Israel) ; Paraíba Symphony Orchestra, TV Cultura Orchestra, Brasil Jazz Sinfônica Orchestra and Goias Philharmonic Orchestra (Brazil) - collaborating with conductors Laurent Petitgirard, François Boulanger, François-Xavier Roth, Michael Cousteau, Vahan Mardirossian, Sergio Monterisi, Alexandre Myrat, Théophanis Kapsopoulos, Joolz Gale, Jan Cober, László Kovács, Gergely Madaras, Mendi Rodan, João Linhares, Júlio Medalha, João Maurício Galindo and Neil Thomson.
In France, she has played in the main Parisian halls : Salle Pleyel, Théâtre du Châtelet, Cité de la Musique, Maison de la Radio, Auditorium du Louvre, Opéra Garnier, Amphithéâtre de l’Opéra Bastille, Théâtre Mogador, Théâtre Marigny, Athénée Théâtre Louis-Jouvet, Salle Cortot - as well as in other cities’ major theatres : Arsenal in Metz, Salle Molière in Lyon, Esplanade in Saint-Etienne, Opera in Nantes, Théâtre in Le Havre. She has been invited in festivals such as Piano aux Jacobins, La Folle Journée, Festival du Périgord Noir, Festival de l’Orangerie de Sceaux, Classique au Vert, Festival du Comminges, Liszt en Provence, SenLiszt à la Fondation Cziffra, Grandes Heures de Saint-Émilion, Musique au Cœur du Médoc, Piano à Riom, Piano Folies du Touquet…
Her first solo album, “Tableaux”, released by Paraty in 2010, featured works by Debussy (Estampes, L’Isle Joyeuse) and Mussorgsky (Pictures at an Exhibition). She continued exploring this repertoire in her second solo recording, “Hommage à Debussy” (Pour le Piano, Suite Bergamasque, Images I & II and several shorter works), released by Genuin in 2012 to great critical acclaim. Juliana Steinbach’s discography also includes several chamber music recordings (works by Brahms, Fauré, Franck, Messiaen, Ravel, Schumann and Shostakovich) produced between 2001 and 2009 and a recording of the complete piano trios by Johannes Brahms with the Talweg Trio, released by Pavane in 2014. Her “Pictures” album released in 2017 is a live recording of a Liszt/Debussy/Mussorgsky recital.
Notwithstanding many cancellations due to the global covid-19 pandemic, highlights of Juliana Steinbach's 2020 musical season include performances in France, Germany, The Netherlands and Brazil; the recording of a new solo album, Saudades do Brasil, with works by Milhaud and Villa-Lobos; and the development of two ambitious projects: Bach Dances (a choreographed performance of all six keyboard Partitas) and Beethoven Odyssey (an extensive exploration of Beethoven’s complete piano and chamber music). In 2021 she will tour with the integral of Bartók three piano concertos - including for her debuts in the Sala São Paulo in Brazil.
Laureate of Cziffra (1996), Banques Populaires (2000), Umberto Micheli (2001), Alfred Reinhold (2002) and Meyer (2002, 2003) foundations, Juliana Steinbach has been awarded top prizes in several international piano competitions, such as the International Young Pianists Competition in Meknès (Morocco, 1996), the Tel-Hai Performance Prizes (Israel, 2000 and 2001) and the Artlivre International Piano Competition in São Paulo (Brazil, 2001). In France, she has been awarded the UNESCO Flame Prize, the Zonta International Music Grant, the Great Prize and Special Prize of the Forum Musical de Normandie.
A passionate chamber music player, she collaborates with a variety of partners, most notably with Martha Argerich and Nelson Freire for piano four-hands repertoire. She was awarded in 2002 the First Prize at the Premio Vittorio Gui International Chamber Music Competition in Firenze (Italy) and in 2005 the Beethoven Prize at the Trio di Trieste International Chamber Music Competition (Italy). Very engaged into the creation and exploration of new repertoires, she collaborated, among others, with composers Jean-Louis Agobet, Yves Chauris, Marcel Cominotto, Guillaume Connesson, Thierry Escaich, Lucien Guérinel, Philippe Hersant, Balázs Horváth, Fabio Nieder, Matan Porat, François Sarhan, Rebecca Saunders and Mikel Urquiza.
In Europe, she has performed in distinguished venues such as La Monnaie, Flagey, Bozar and Conservatoire Royal in Bruxelles, Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, Gasteig in Munich, Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, Prague Rudolfinum, Teatro della Pergola and Teatro Comunale in Firenze, Teatro São Luis in Lisbon - and in prestigious festivals : Oxford Chamber Music Festival in the UK, Salzburg Festspiel in Austria, Bologna Festival, MITO Settembre Musica in Milano/Torino and many Amici della Musica in Italy, Santander and San Sebastian in Spain, Piano Visions in Sweden, Farsund in Norway, Kauniainen in Finland. Elsewhere in the world, she has performed in halls such as the Museum Tel-Aviv (Israel), the Lincoln Center in New York (USA), the Rozsa Center in Calgary (Canada), the Sala Cecilia Meireles in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires (Argentina), as well as in several Asian capitals : Seoul (South-Corea), Manilla (Philippines), Bangkok (Thailand), Hong-Kong (China) and Tokyo (Japan).
Juliana Steinbach is the founder and artistic director of two piano and chamber music festivals : “Musique en Charolais-Brionnais” in France, which brings every summer since 2005 an international audience to the exquisite Romanesque churches of Southern Burgundy - and “Transylvania Chamber Music Festival” in Romania, a unique musical project following Béla Bartók’s footsteps and exploring the folkloric roots of central European classical music inheritage. Very engaged into the transmission to the younger generations of musicians, she tought during five years as a piano professor in Caen Regional Conservatory (CRR) and gave numerous masterclasses in various schools and universities during her international tours. In 2020, she will be a faculty member in several academies and pedagogical projects in Brazil, France, the Netherlands and Romania.
The last season saw Juliana Steinbach's return to the Folle Journée Festival in Nantes in chamber music and solo recitals, her recital debuts at the Lille Piano Festival upon Jean-Claude Casadesus’ invitation and a performance of the complete Préludes by Debussy at the Festival des Grandes Heures de Saint-Émilion - a program she had previously played at the prestigious Piano aux Jacobins Festival in Toulouse. She recorded a recital in Lyon (Salle Molière) combining Chopin (Préludes op.28), Liszt (Mephisto-Valse) and Bartók (Sonata) and played several concerts with orchestras in France and Brazil : Liszt’s first piano concerto, Bernstein’s The Age of Anxiety and Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto, stepping in the last minute for Nelson Freire.
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