Guest Artist Biography: Jeremy Samolesky

Jeremy Samolesky, a native of Manitoba, Canada, currently serves as Associate Professor of Piano at Auburn University, where he teaches piano performance majors and serves as Piano Area Coordinator.

Known for his passion for both solo and collaborative performances, Samolesky has appeared in concert as a soloist and chamber pianist throughout the U.S., Canada, Italy, Austria, Hong Kong, China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Serbia, including a full recital at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., which was broadcast nationally on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today.”

 As a concerto soloist, Samolesky performs regularly with orchestras throughout the U.S. and Canada, with concertos by Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, Brahms, and Rachmaninov. Festival appearances include the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Orford Arts Centre (Quebec), the Agassiz Music Festival (Winnipeg), the Courtenay Music Festival (B.C.), the Methow Music Festival (WA), the Adriatic Chamber Music Festival (Bonefro, Italy), and the Chigiana Music Academy in Siena. Broadcasts of his performances have been heard on Seattle’s KING FM, Canada’s CBC, CJOB, WDAZ (ND), and Troy Public Radio (AL). Dr. Samolesky was also featured in a documentary on the piano music of Sergei Prokofiev, produced by the Manitoba Television Network.

Samolesky enjoys maintaining a rigorous performance schedule, with recent concert tours of China and Hong Kong, along with over 75 recitals and masterclasses at universities spanning 15 different states throughout the U.S over the past five years. In the summer of 2013, he was featured as a lecturer and soloist at the World Piano Conference in Novi Sad, Serbia, and also made his third annual residency in Malaysia, sponsored by the Perak Society of Performing Arts.

 Dedicated to the promotion of new music, Samolesky often works directly with living composers in preparing performances of their works, having given recent premieres by composers such as David Maslanka David Plylar, and Carl Vollrath.
Samolesky’s debut solo CD will be released on the Centaur label in the fall of 2014.

 Dr. Samolesky achieved the rare distinction of graduating with two doctoral degrees from the Eastman School of Music: Piano Performance and Literature under the direction of Barry Snyder, and Accompanying and Chamber Music with Jean Barr. Eastman has permitted this double-doctorate just once before in the school’s history.

 In his four years at Eastman, Samolesky garnered many top honors, including the Barr Award, the Barbara M. King Scholarship, the Brooks Smith Scholarship, the “Excellence in Accompanying” award for three years in a row, 1st place in the Kneisel Lieder Competition, and was awarded the Performer’s Certificate for distinguished artistry in performance. He also holds the Master of Music degree in Piano Performance from the University of Washington and the Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Manitoba.

As a teacher, Dr. Samolesky’s students are frequent competition winners and regularly receive prestigious scholarships and assistantships at renowned graduate music programs throughout the U.S. For his achievements, he was awarded the 2012 “Excellence in Teaching” award from Auburn University. Samolesky currently serves on the executive board of the Alabama Music Teachers’ Association and would like to thank the Manitoba Arts Council for their continued support throughout his career.