Dorothy Lewis-Griffith

American pianist Dorothy Lewis-Griffith has received wide acclaim for her great technique, poetic interpretations and powerful performance.  With a repertoire that ranges from Baroque to contemporary works, Dorothy Lewis-Griffith brings exciting new insights to well-known pieces as well as showcasing some of the most exciting new, contemporary works.

 

Ms. Lewis-Griffith began performing at a young age and made her orchestral debut at age fourteen as guest soloist with the North Carolina Symphony, and has since performed throughout North America, Europe and Asia.  She is the recipient of various awards, including a Fulbright-Hays Award and a Prize at the Geneva International Music Competition.  She completed a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Peabody Conservatory of The Johns Hopkins University, undergraduate and Master’s degrees at The Juilliard School, and also studied in France at the Conservatoire de Paris and the École Normale de Musique.

 

Ms. Lewis-Griffith has a particular interest in contemporary works, having performed the Atlanta premiere of the “First Piano Sonata” of Pierre Boulez, as well as performing the New York premiere of Vincent Persichetti “Sonata No. 3”, Robert Starer’s “Sonata No.1” and “Evanescents” (a work dedicated “to Dorothy Lewis”), as well as “Electric Church”, which she commissioned from Starer (Ms. Lewis-Griffith’s doctoral dissertation was about the piano music of Robert Starer).  She has also premiered works by Louise Talma, Japanese-American composer Higo Harada and Finnish composer Pauliina Isomäki.

 

In 1988 she gave recitals and conducted master classes in The People’s Republic of China, and was invited back in 1997 to solo with the orchestra in Kunming, Yunnan. In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil she performed the Rachmaninoff Second Concerto with the city orchestra. She also performed the Premiere of Vincent Persichetti’s Third Piano Sonata.

 

Also, with the exception of the Cuban Overture, she has transcribed and recorded, for solo piano, all of George Gershwin’s major works.  These were released on the Etcetera label as two volumes:  Gershwin: A Piano Solo Album and Gershwin: An American in Paris.  Her other recordings include A Bonn Recital as well as A Christmas Celebration.  Her latest release is Beethoven – Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15, an historic 1964 recording of Ms. Lewis-Griffith’s performance with the Brevard Music Centre Orchestra, conducted by James Christian Pohl.

 

Ms. Lewis-Griffith is Associate Professor Emerita from the Valdosta State University, and former Artist-in-Residence at Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina.  She has served on the faculties of the University of Wisconsin-Superior, the Peabody Conservatory and Catawba College in North Carolina.