American pianist David Saliamonas has been hailed as one of the most expressive and individual pianists of his generation. Critics in the United States and Canada have described him as a “tremendous talent…dazzling” and stated that he “played with great intensity and feeling throughout.” Called a “splendid musician and virtuoso” by renowned pianist Eugene Istomin and a “wonderful pianist” by conductor Yutaka Sado, David Saliamonas was also praised by the London (Canada) Free Press for his “firm technique that was passionately responsive” and by Italy’s Gazzetta del Sud as having “an exquisite sense of harmony.” Speaking of his French-premiere 2006 performance of the Korngold Piano Concerto, the La Marseillaise praised his “hair-raising virtuosity and charisma”; while the Stuttgarter Zeitung, writing of his 2009 performance of the same concerto, said that “he has a remarkable feeling for the special timing of this music, that is why under his hand this winding rhapsodic opus became an arrangement of rafinesse and ideas.”
David has performed in cities throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Turkey, Morocco, China, Japan, and Australia. Also, he has been featured on radio and television in the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Romania, and China. His live performance of works by Rachmaninoff and Scriabin is regularly broadcast internationally by the music television station Mezzo.
Active as a chamber musician, David Saliamonas has worked with, among many others, the Wild Ginger Chamber Players, singers Denyce Graves, Karen Vourc’h, and Laurent Naouri, clarinetist Chen Halevi, violinists Ittai Shapira, Jonathan Gandelsman, and Guy Braunstein, and cellists Elena Cheah and Henri Demarquette.
On stage, in addition to playing the piano, David Saliamonas usually speaks about the music that he performs. In an informal yet informative way, he explains various aspects of the music, not hesitating to recount an amusing anecdote or to demonstrate a compositional technique at the keyboard. This has proven to be very successful with audiences, be they of seasoned concert-goers or of school children little accustomed to listening to classical music. Not only can these talks help the listener better appreciate the music, but they also lighten what is often perceived to be the staid atmosphere at many concerts of classical music.
It is David’s gift for conveying music to the public that led Harold Bauer, the conductor of the New Philharmonic (Chicago), to write (after performances of Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini) “David is a communicator – on all levels. It was wonderful to see his instant rapport with students in a lecture/demonstration. His ease at the keyboard, his ability to play examples as he talks, his sheer joy in the task all combine to involve the trained and untrained listener. And as a performer, he certainly communicates! There were standing ovations at both concerts.” In a similar vein, the eminent French musicologist and radio personality Gilles Cantagrel wrote about David’s “facility of communication with the listeners. Mr. Saliamonas marries a perfect technique with the mastery of the music. His natural, smiling authority and the generosity of his playing immediately conquered the public.”
A native of Glen Ellyn, Ill., David Saliamonas taught himself to play by ear and to improvise at the age of five. Eventually, his musical education led him to a scholarship at the Manhattan School of Music, where he received both his Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees. His teachers have included Eugene Istomin, Robert Goldsand, David Buechner, William Browning, and Ann Schein. He has also studied conducting, notably in Budapest with Yuri Simonov and in Salzburg with Hans Zender. After having lived for several years in New York, he currently makes his home in Paris.
