Solon Pierce

Extensively trained and conversant with a wide array of musical styles and traditions, Solon Pierce is a pianist with an enthusiasm for less celebrated, forgotten music as well as new work by emerging artists. Dr. Pierce has given world premieres of works by composers such as Kaikhosru Sorabji, Curt Wrangö, and Nicholas Brown. With the assistance of an alumni grant awarded by Oberlin College in 1999, Solon Pierce was in residence in Denmark for 3 months researching Danish-born pianist and composer Gunnar Johansen's early career. Dr. Pierce also recorded the composer's "Sonata No. 23" for Radio Denmark in Copenhagen. He subsequently has given presentations on Gunnar Johansen's life and art for the Danish American Heritage Society's 2005 conference in Des Moines and for the Johansen centennial festival held in Mills Hall at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2006.

A native of Wisconsin, Solon Pierce completed his undergraduate studies at Oberlin College's Conservatory of Music, where he earned a BM in Piano Performance and studied with noted pianist Robert McDonald. Dr. Pierce commenced further studies in New York at the Mannes College of Music and at the Juilliard School, where he received an MM while working with prominent American pianists Jerome Lowenthal and Abbey Simon. Solon Pierce completed doctoral work at the University of Minnesota, working with Russian pianist and pedagogue Alexander Braginsky.

Solon Pierce has performed as both a soloist and collaborative artist in Europe, Canada, and the United States in celebrated venues including Carnegie Hall, The Pabst Theater, the British Music Information Centre, Magdalen College, Maison Francaise in Oxford, and Fondation Danoise in Paris. Solon Pierce has performed and given master classes at numerous colleges and universities in the US and Canada, including Mansfield University, University of Chicago, Point Loma Nazarene University, Boston College, University of Mississippi, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, University of Tampa, Winthrop University, Brock University, and University of Waterloo, among others.