DAVID LEISNER is an extraordinarily versatile musician with a multi-faceted career as an electrifying performing artist, a distinguished composer, and a master teacher. Regarded as one of the world's leading classical guitarists, his superb musicianship and provocative programming have been applauded by critics and audiences around the globe. He is a featured recording artist for the new label, Azica, with highly acclaimed solo recordings of Bach, Villa-Lobos, Contemporary music, Mertz and Schubert, and his own compositions. Soon to be released is a Naxos recording of the Hovhaness Concerto with Gerard Schwarz and the Berlin Radio Orchestra.
Mr. Leisner's career as a guitarist began auspiciously with top prizes in both the 1975 Toronto and 1981 Geneva International Guitar Competitions. In the 1980s, a disabling hand injury, focal dystonia, cut off his blossoming performing career in mid-stream and plagued him for 12 years. Through a pioneering approach to technique based on his understanding of the physical aspects of playing the guitar, Leisner gradually rehabilitated himself. Completely recovered since 1996, he has once again resumed an active performing career, earning accolades wherever he plays.
David Leisner's recent seasons have taken him around the US, including his solo debut with the Atlanta Symphony, a major tour of Australia and New Zealand, and debuts and reappearances in Japan, the Phillipines, Hungary, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Ireland, the U.K., Italy, Czech Republic, Greece, Puerto Rico and Mexico. An innovative three-concert series at Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall, included the first all-Bach guitar recital in New Yorks history. He has performed chamber music at the Santa Fe, Vail Valley, Rockport, Cape and Islands, Bargemusic and Angel Fire Festivals, with Eugenia Zukerman, Kurt Ollmann, Ida Kavafian and many others. Celebrated for expanding the guitar repertoire, David Leisner has premiered works by many important composers, including Virgil Thomson, Ned Rorem, Philip Glass, Richard Rodney Bennett, Peter Sculthorpe and Osvaldo Golijov.
Other chamber music recordings are on the Telarc, Koch and Etcetera labels. David Leisner's recent seasons have taken him around the US, including his solo debut with the Atlanta Symphony, a major tour of Australia and New Zealand, and debuts and reappearances in Japan, the Philippines, Germany, Hungary, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Ireland, the U.K., Italy, Czech Republic, Greece, Puerto Rico and Mexico. An innovative three-concert series at Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall, included the first all-Bach guitar recital in New Yorks history. He is a regular at the Santa Fe, Vail Valley, Bargemusic, Bay Chamber and Angel Fire Chamber Music Festivals.
Mr. Leisner is also a highly respected composer noted for the emotional and dramatic power of his music. His Dances in the Madhouse, in both its original version for violin and guitar and as an arrangement for orchestra, has received hundreds of performances. Recent commissioners include the baritone Wolfgang Holzmair, Stones River Chamber Players (TN), Fairfield Orchestra (CT), Red Cedar Chamber Music (IA), and the Twentieth Century Unlimited Series (NM). Recordings of his works are currently available on the Sony Classical, ABC, Dorian, Centaur, Town Hall, Signum, Acoustic Music, Athena and Barking Dog labels. His compositions are published by Merion Music/Theodore Presser, AMP/G. Schirmer, Doberman-Yppan, Frederick Harris and Columbia Music.
A distinguished teacher as well, Leisner has served on the faculty of the New England Conservatory and is currently co-chairman of the guitar department at the Manhattan School of Music.
For more information, please visit David Leisners website: www.davidleisner.com
