The "Blurb"

Winner of the Gold Medal at the Seventh Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, José Feghali has been a major presence on the concert stage, having appeared in over 800 performances worldwide. These include concerts with such renowned orchestras as the Berlin Philharmonic, Gewandhaus, Royal Concertgebouw, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Royal ­Philharmonic, London Symphony, Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Warsaw Philharmonic and, in the United States, with the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Saint Louis, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Houston, Dallas, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Baltimore and the National Symphony. Mr. Feghali has performed with such eminent conductors as Kurt Masur, Neeme Järvi, John Nelson, James DePriest, Yuri Temirkanov, Leonard Slatkin, Kurt Sanderling, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Christoph Eschenbach, Eduardo Mata, Sergiu Comissiona, Philippe Entremont, Andrew Litton, Zdenek Macal, Hans Graf, David Zinman and Hans Vonk. 

Equally active as a recitalist, Mr. Feghali has appeared on such prestigious stages as Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Ambassador Auditorium and Chicago’s Orchestra Hall. He has also performed in the major concert halls of the United Kingdom, Germany, Holland, Spain, Portugal, Eastern Europe, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore and Latin America. In addition, Mr. Feghali has regularly collaborated in chamber music performances, including recitals with renowned flutist James Galway, cellists Truls Mørk, Antonio Meneses and Daniel Gaisford, violinists Régis Pasquier, Olivier Charlier and Emanuel Borok, duo piano with André Watts, and performances of Strauss’ “Enoch Arden” with Jon Vickers. He is an Artist/Faculty member and Associate Director of the Mimir Chamber Music Festival in Fort Worth, and a regular performer at the “Classical Action/Performing Artists Against Aids” benefit concerts.

Recent and upcoming engagements include performances with the Dallas, Chicago, Houston, Nashville and Jacksonville symphonies as well as appearances at the Kravis and Meyerson Symphony centers, the Cliburn Concerts series and the Ravinia Festival. He participated in the Shanghai Piano Summer Sessions in 2003 and was invited to return to China for a concerto and recital tour this season.

A child prodigy in his native Brazil, Mr. Feghali made his recital debut at the age of five and concerto debut three years later with the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra. Feghali moved to London at fifteen to study with Maria Curcio Diamand, then continued his studies at the Royal Academy of Music with Christopher Elton. His recordings include a CD of music inspired by dance on the Koss Classics label and a live recording from the Van Cliburn Competition on the VAI label. New recordings to be released this season include an all Schumann program and an all-Brahms CD with cellist Daniel Gaisford on the Anacapa Music Label. He has also recorded Villa-Lobos' Bachianas Brasileiras no.3 with the Nashville Symphony for the Naxos label.

Mr. Feghali is Artist-in-Residence at Texas Christian University. He has a special interest in recording technology and was the producer and re-mastering engineer for the retrospective set of nine compact disks (V.A.I. label) featuring past medalists’ live performances in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Mr. Feghali also serves as Vice President and Executive Producer for the new Anacapa Music label. He was Artistic Advisor of the Texas Chamber Orchestra for the 2003/2004 season, and performed with them as both pianist and conductor.