Ran Dank
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Ran Dank (; born 3 April 1982) is an American-Israeli classical pianist, who currently lives in New York and teaches at the
Eastman School of Music The Eastman School of Music is the music school of the University of Rochester, a private research university in Rochester, New York, United States. Established in 1921 by celebrated industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman, it was the ...
.


Early life

Dank started playing the piano at the age of seven with Yaakov Krantz. He went on to work with Liora Peleg at the Givaataim Conservatory, and from 1994 until 2002, he studied with Professor Vadim Monastirsky of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. From 2004 to 2005, Dank attended the Rubin Academy of Music in
Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...
, where he received his BA in music, studying with Professor Emanuel Krasovsky. In 2005–07, Dank left his native
Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
for the first time, to study at the
Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a Private university, private performing arts music school, conservatory in New York City. Founded by Frank Damrosch as the Institute of Musical Art in 1905, the school later added dance and drama programs and became ...
in New York. Under the tutelage of Professors
Emanuel Ax Emanuel "Manny" Ax (born June 8, 1949) is a Grammy Award-winning American classical pianist. He is known for his chamber music collaborations with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and violinists Isaac Stern and Young Uck Kim, as well as his piano recitals and p ...
and
Joseph Kalichstein Joseph Kalichstein (; 15 January 1946 – 31 March 2022) was an American classical pianist who performed in the concerto, solo recital and chamber music repertoire, the latter mainly with Jaime Laredo and Sharon Robinson (cellist), Sharon Robinso ...
, he was awarded his M.M degree in 2007. In 2009, Dank graduated from the Juilliard School with an Artist Diploma degree, studying with Robert McDonald. Dank received his Doctor of Music degree from the CUNY Graduate Center in 2014, having worked with pianists Richard Goode and Ursula Oppens.


Professional career

Dank has given recitals and concerts in the US, Belgium, Poland, France, England, Germany, Finland, Russia and Australia, performing at prominent venues such as the
Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5  ...
,
Steinway Hall Steinway Hall (German: ) is the name of buildings housing concert halls, showrooms and sales departments for Steinway & Sons pianos. The first Steinway Hall was opened in 1866 in New York City. Today, Steinway Halls and are located in cities suc ...
,
Alice Tully Hall Alice Tully Hall is a concert hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. The hall is named for Alice Tully, a New York performer and Philanthropy, philanthropist whose donations assis ...
, and the Peter Jay Sharp Theater in New York,
Severance Hall Severance Hall, also known as Severance Music Center, is a concert hall in the University Circle neighborhood of Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio, home to the Cleveland Orchestra. Opened in 1931 to give the orchestra a permanent home, the building is n ...
in
Cleveland, OH Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania stat ...
, the Glazunov Hall in
Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
, and the
Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue Performing arts center, performing arts centre in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive b ...
in Sydney, Australia. Dank has performed as a soloist with the
Cleveland Orchestra The Cleveland Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Cleveland, Ohio. Founded in 1918 by the pianist and impresario Adella Prentiss Hughes, the orchestra is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the " Big Five". T ...
, the
Sydney Symphony Orchestra The Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO) is an Australian symphony orchestra based in Sydney. With roots going back to 1908, the orchestra was made a permanent professional orchestra on the formation of the Australian Broadcasting Commission in 1932. ...
, the Juilliard School Orchestra, the Williamsport Symphony Orchestra, the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, the Rishon Lezion Symphonic Orchestra, the Jerusalem Symphonic Orchestra, and the Raanana Symphony Orchestra, amongst others. Dank has taken part in numerous festivals, such as the Chopin Festival in
Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...
and
Żelazowa Wola Żelazowa Wola () is a village in Gmina Sochaczew, Sochaczew County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. It lies on the Utrata River, some northeast of Sochaczew and west of Warsaw. Description The village is known for being the birt ...
, performing works by Chopin and
Liszt Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic period. With a diverse body of work spanning more than six decades, he is considered to be one of the most pro ...
, and the Israel Festival with a complete
Scriabin Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin, scientific transliteration: ''Aleksandr Nikolaevič Skrjabin''; also transliterated variously as Skriabin, Skryabin, and (in French) Scriabine. The composer himselused the French spelling "Scriabine" which was a ...
sonata cycle. He also played a variety of programs combining some piano rarities at the Mäntta Festival for Virtuoso Pianists, in Finland.


Awards

Dank has won virtually every major prize available for a young musician in his own country. He has been a recipient of an America Israel Cultural Foundation scholarship since 1992, and a special Scholarship for Studies Abroad. Prizes in competitions in Israel include the Voice of Music Competition, and first prize, the Rafi Goralnik Award, at the Aviv Competitions in 2002. This is considered the most important competition for musicians in Israel. In 2006, Dank won the
Gina Bachauer Gina Bachauer (Greek: Τζίνα Μπαχάουερ; May 21, 1913, AthensAugust 22, 1976, Athens) was a Greek classical pianist who toured extensively in the United States and Europe. Interested in piano at a young age, Bachauer graduated from th ...
competition held at The Juilliard School, and in 2007 he was the recipient of both the
Arthur Rubinstein Arthur Rubinstein Order of the British Empire, KBE OMRI (; 28 January 1887 – 20 December 1982) was a Polish Americans, Polish-American pianist.
Prize and the 4th prize at the
Cleveland International Piano Competition The Cleveland International Piano Competition is an American piano competition that takes place biennially in Cleveland, Ohio. The initial Competition in 1975 and the nine others that followed were sponsored jointly by the Robert Casadesus Society ...
. In March 2008 Dank was awarded the grand prize of $15,000 and gold medal at the Hilton Head International Piano Competition, resulting in different engagements including his debut recital in
Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...
in the fall of 2008. In August 2008 Dank was awarded with the third prize at the Sydney International Piano Competition including special awards by the
Sydney Symphony Orchestra The Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO) is an Australian symphony orchestra based in Sydney. With roots going back to 1908, the orchestra was made a permanent professional orchestra on the formation of the Australian Broadcasting Commission in 1932. ...
for the best performance of the two concertos in the final, and awards for the best performance of a work by
Debussy Achille Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influe ...
and a work by
Rachmaninov Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff; in Russian pre-revolutionary script. (28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of ...
. Most recently, Dank joined the roster of Young Concert Artists as a winner of the 2009 International Auditions.


References


External links


Colbert Artists Management, Inc.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dank, Ran 1982 births Living people Sydney International Piano Competition prize-winners Cleveland International Piano Competition prize-winners Jewish classical pianists 21st-century Israel classical pianists