Performances + Events
Celebrating the Life of Russell Sherman
Jordan Hall
Free
In-Person Event
Pre-registration for this event is now closed. If you do not yet have a ticket and wish to attend, please visit the in-person Box Office one hour before the performance begins. The Box Office is located on the lower landing on the left side of the Jordan Hall building’s Gainsborough Street entrance.
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NEC warmly invites you to a celebration of Russell Sherman’s life and legacy in Jordan Hall, followed by a reception in Brown Hall. A legendary artist, teacher, and humanitarian, Mr. Sherman passed away at age 93 on September 30, 2023. Emmanuel Music, a group Russell Sherman had a longstanding relationship with, will perform Bach's celebratory motet Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden, BWV 230, under the direction of Ryan Turner.
To reserve your seat, please click the "Get Tickets" link above.
Read more about his transcendent artistry, distinguished legacy, and biography below.
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A legendary artist, teacher, and humanitarian, Russell Sherman leaves an irreplaceable void. The entire New England Conservatory community extends warm thoughts and condolences to Wha Kyung Byun, and to the many students whose lives and music he deepened.
Mr. Sherman’s transcendent artistry and distinguished legacy were evoked by Bruce Brubaker in 2015, as he presented Mr. Sherman for an honorary degree from NEC:
For Russell Sherman, the piano is an instrument of wonder. Through this device, through this big black box, we hear him, we hear Russell Sherman sing, or declaim, cry or exalt—telling us a wordless story of love, or pain, or of joy.
Russell Sherman’s passion for baseball marks him as an American. And then among Americans, Russell Sherman is the first to record all of Beethoven’s piano sonatas and piano concertos. He plays music by Franz Liszt, and Schubert, Chopin, and Haydn—and also by Schoenberg, and Ralph Shapey, and Gunther Schuller. At the end of the manuscript of Shapey’s Sonata Profundo, first played by Mr. Sherman, there’s an evocative inscription: “Go, Buddy, Go, in a Voice of Thunder!”
Near the end of the 19th century, the great musician Ferruccio Busoni taught at NEC, a few years later he played the piano on this [Jordan Hall] stage. At times, I have felt the spirit of Busoni might be hovering over Russell. I recall an extraordinary occasion when Liszt’s Funerailles was played by Mr. Sherman. In the central section, with left-hand octaves, he produced a tremendous soul-chilling roar from the bass register of the piano. And in that moment, I understood what Busoni wrote, about the pedal of the piano. He said: “An inimitable device, a photograph of the sky, a ray of moonlight—the pedal.” For me suddenly that night, and for the audience, Busoni—or Liszt himself—was in the room.
Though I didn’t think of it then, Russell’s music-making rather directly connects to Busoni, via Edward Steuermann, who was Russell’s teacher and who was Busoni’s student. And then, for that matter, Busoni studied with Carl Reinecke, who studied with Liszt.
We’re not finished though—because Liszt studied with Carl Czerny, who studied with Beethoven. And after Russell Sherman’s 85th-birthday, all-Beethoven concert on this stage in March this year, America’s Beethoven scholar Lewis Lockwood said: “You brought him down. Beethoven was on the stage.”
Working with many outstanding students in his teaching here at NEC, since 1967, Russell Sherman is a large part of what has made the NEC piano department a world center of piano study today.
In his book of reflections Piano Pieces, published in 1996, Russell Sherman writes: “The work of art, though bound by its genetic markings and indelible fingerprints, is boundless in the infinite elaborations of its destiny….”
Over decades, Russell Sherman has put his indelible fingerprint on the musical life of Boston, the United States, the world. The destiny of that musical life has been elaborated and enriched by him. We thank him.
Russell Sherman ’15 hon. DM
March 25, 1930 - September 30, 2023
An eloquent communicator both on and off the concert stage, one of Boston’s musical treasures, legendary pianist Russell Sherman garnered accolades from critics and audiences alike for his grace, imagination, and poetry. The New York Times called him “one of the best pianists in this or any other country.” As the author of the highly acclaimed book Piano Pieces (a rhapsodic compilation of vignettes and personal anecdotes from Sherman’s life experiences as a pianist and teacher), Russell Sherman was praised not only as an ingenious virtuoso but also as an insightful master.
Sherman performed with such major orchestras as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Orchestra of St. Luke’s (with whom he performed the five Beethoven concertos), Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, and the San Francisco Symphony. Abroad, Sherman played in the major cities of Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Russia, Korea, China, and South America.
In recital, Russell Sherman appeared on Carnegie Hall’s Keyboard Virtuoso Series, California’s Ambassador Foundation Series, the Distinguished Artists Series at New York’s Tisch Center for the Arts at the 92nd Street Y, and the Bank of Boston Celebrity Series. He performed at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Sarasota’s Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, Boston’s Symphony Hall, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Jordan Hall, Columbia University’s Miller Theater, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Chicago’s Orchestra Hall. Additionally, he appeared at the Ravinia Festival, the Hollywood Bowl, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and the Wolf Trap Festival, as well as recitals at Spain’s Santander Festival and Germany’s Ruhr Triennale Festival. In 2010, he collaborated with Mark Morris Dance Group alongside Minsoo Sohn and the Orchestra of Emmanuel Music in the Boston premiere of Mozart Dances, presented by Celebrity Series of Boston.
Sherman was a prolific recording artist. He recorded the five Beethoven concertos with the Czech Philharmonic and the Monadnock Festival Orchestra, and the complete Beethoven sonatas, recorded as five dual-CD sets (each having been released individually and as a complete set). The entire Beethoven sonatas project was called “a set for the ages” by Bernard Jacobson in Fanfare. This made Sherman the first American pianist to have recorded all of the sonatas and concertos of Beethoven. His earlier recording of Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes was critically acclaimed: Anthony Tommasini in a 1999 New York Times piece said,
“Several impressive recordings of Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes prove that these audaciously difficult works are actually playable and triumphantly pianistic. But none make Liszt’s visionary understanding of what the piano could do more palpable and exciting than Russell Sherman’s extraordinary 1990 recording.”
Sherman also recorded Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F, Brahms’s Variations on a Theme by Paganini, Op. 35 and Fantasies, Op. 116, Chopin’s 24 Preludes, Op. 28, Schubert’s Sonata in D major, D. 850 and Sonata in B-flat major, D. 960, both Grieg and Schumann concertos, and works by Liszt, including the B minor Sonata, Don Juan Fantasy, and transcriptions. He also recorded Mozart’s two concertos in minor keys plus solo fantasies with the Orchestra of Emmanuel Music under Craig Smith. Additional recordings include a GM Recording CD, Premieres & Commissions, in which he performed contemporary repertoire by Schoenberg, Schuller, Helps, Perle, and Shapey. Except for Schoenberg’s Six Piano Pieces, he personally premiered and commissioned all of these works. Sherman’s releases on Avie Records include a CD of Debussy’s Estampes, Images Book II and Préludes Book II, a DVD of his live performance of the Liszt Etudes d’exécution transcendante, and most recently, the complete Chopin Mazurkas. Sherman also performed and recorded the complete sonatas of Mozart, the Bach English Suites, and the complete piano works of Schoenberg.
Russell Sherman was born in 1930 and educated in New York, beginning piano studies at age six. By age eleven, Sherman was studying with Eduard Steuermann, a pupil and friend of Ferruccio Busoni and Arnold Schoenberg. Sherman graduated from Columbia University at age nineteen with a degree in the humanities. He was a Visiting Professor at Harvard University and served as a Distinguished Artist-in-Residence at New England Conservatory. Sherman continued to explore and merited the title “a thinking man’s virtuoso.”
----
NEC warmly invites you to a celebration of Russell Sherman’s life and legacy in Jordan Hall, followed by a reception in Brown Hall. A legendary artist, teacher, and humanitarian, Mr. Sherman passed away at age 93 on September 30, 2023. Emmanuel Music, a group Russell Sherman had a longstanding relationship with, will perform Bach's celebratory motet Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden, BWV 230, under the direction of Ryan Turner.
To reserve your seat, please click the "Get Tickets" link above.
Read more about his transcendent artistry, distinguished legacy, and biography below.
----
A legendary artist, teacher, and humanitarian, Russell Sherman leaves an irreplaceable void. The entire New England Conservatory community extends warm thoughts and condolences to Wha Kyung Byun, and to the many students whose lives and music he deepened.
Mr. Sherman’s transcendent artistry and distinguished legacy were evoked by Bruce Brubaker in 2015, as he presented Mr. Sherman for an honorary degree from NEC:
For Russell Sherman, the piano is an instrument of wonder. Through this device, through this big black box, we hear him, we hear Russell Sherman sing, or declaim, cry or exalt—telling us a wordless story of love, or pain, or of joy.
Russell Sherman’s passion for baseball marks him as an American. And then among Americans, Russell Sherman is the first to record all of Beethoven’s piano sonatas and piano concertos. He plays music by Franz Liszt, and Schubert, Chopin, and Haydn—and also by Schoenberg, and Ralph Shapey, and Gunther Schuller. At the end of the manuscript of Shapey’s Sonata Profundo, first played by Mr. Sherman, there’s an evocative inscription: “Go, Buddy, Go, in a Voice of Thunder!”
Near the end of the 19th century, the great musician Ferruccio Busoni taught at NEC, a few years later he played the piano on this [Jordan Hall] stage. At times, I have felt the spirit of Busoni might be hovering over Russell. I recall an extraordinary occasion when Liszt’s Funerailles was played by Mr. Sherman. In the central section, with left-hand octaves, he produced a tremendous soul-chilling roar from the bass register of the piano. And in that moment, I understood what Busoni wrote, about the pedal of the piano. He said: “An inimitable device, a photograph of the sky, a ray of moonlight—the pedal.” For me suddenly that night, and for the audience, Busoni—or Liszt himself—was in the room.
Though I didn’t think of it then, Russell’s music-making rather directly connects to Busoni, via Edward Steuermann, who was Russell’s teacher and who was Busoni’s student. And then, for that matter, Busoni studied with Carl Reinecke, who studied with Liszt.
We’re not finished though—because Liszt studied with Carl Czerny, who studied with Beethoven. And after Russell Sherman’s 85th-birthday, all-Beethoven concert on this stage in March this year, America’s Beethoven scholar Lewis Lockwood said: “You brought him down. Beethoven was on the stage.”
Working with many outstanding students in his teaching here at NEC, since 1967, Russell Sherman is a large part of what has made the NEC piano department a world center of piano study today.
In his book of reflections Piano Pieces, published in 1996, Russell Sherman writes: “The work of art, though bound by its genetic markings and indelible fingerprints, is boundless in the infinite elaborations of its destiny….”
Over decades, Russell Sherman has put his indelible fingerprint on the musical life of Boston, the United States, the world. The destiny of that musical life has been elaborated and enriched by him. We thank him.
Russell Sherman ’15 hon. DM
March 25, 1930 - September 30, 2023
An eloquent communicator both on and off the concert stage, one of Boston’s musical treasures, legendary pianist Russell Sherman garnered accolades from critics and audiences alike for his grace, imagination, and poetry. The New York Times called him “one of the best pianists in this or any other country.” As the author of the highly acclaimed book Piano Pieces (a rhapsodic compilation of vignettes and personal anecdotes from Sherman’s life experiences as a pianist and teacher), Russell Sherman was praised not only as an ingenious virtuoso but also as an insightful master.
Sherman performed with such major orchestras as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Orchestra of St. Luke’s (with whom he performed the five Beethoven concertos), Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, and the San Francisco Symphony. Abroad, Sherman played in the major cities of Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Russia, Korea, China, and South America.
In recital, Russell Sherman appeared on Carnegie Hall’s Keyboard Virtuoso Series, California’s Ambassador Foundation Series, the Distinguished Artists Series at New York’s Tisch Center for the Arts at the 92nd Street Y, and the Bank of Boston Celebrity Series. He performed at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Sarasota’s Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, Boston’s Symphony Hall, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Jordan Hall, Columbia University’s Miller Theater, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Chicago’s Orchestra Hall. Additionally, he appeared at the Ravinia Festival, the Hollywood Bowl, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and the Wolf Trap Festival, as well as recitals at Spain’s Santander Festival and Germany’s Ruhr Triennale Festival. In 2010, he collaborated with Mark Morris Dance Group alongside Minsoo Sohn and the Orchestra of Emmanuel Music in the Boston premiere of Mozart Dances, presented by Celebrity Series of Boston.
Sherman was a prolific recording artist. He recorded the five Beethoven concertos with the Czech Philharmonic and the Monadnock Festival Orchestra, and the complete Beethoven sonatas, recorded as five dual-CD sets (each having been released individually and as a complete set). The entire Beethoven sonatas project was called “a set for the ages” by Bernard Jacobson in Fanfare. This made Sherman the first American pianist to have recorded all of the sonatas and concertos of Beethoven. His earlier recording of Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes was critically acclaimed: Anthony Tommasini in a 1999 New York Times piece said,
“Several impressive recordings of Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes prove that these audaciously difficult works are actually playable and triumphantly pianistic. But none make Liszt’s visionary understanding of what the piano could do more palpable and exciting than Russell Sherman’s extraordinary 1990 recording.”
Sherman also recorded Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F, Brahms’s Variations on a Theme by Paganini, Op. 35 and Fantasies, Op. 116, Chopin’s 24 Preludes, Op. 28, Schubert’s Sonata in D major, D. 850 and Sonata in B-flat major, D. 960, both Grieg and Schumann concertos, and works by Liszt, including the B minor Sonata, Don Juan Fantasy, and transcriptions. He also recorded Mozart’s two concertos in minor keys plus solo fantasies with the Orchestra of Emmanuel Music under Craig Smith. Additional recordings include a GM Recording CD, Premieres & Commissions, in which he performed contemporary repertoire by Schoenberg, Schuller, Helps, Perle, and Shapey. Except for Schoenberg’s Six Piano Pieces, he personally premiered and commissioned all of these works. Sherman’s releases on Avie Records include a CD of Debussy’s Estampes, Images Book II and Préludes Book II, a DVD of his live performance of the Liszt Etudes d’exécution transcendante, and most recently, the complete Chopin Mazurkas. Sherman also performed and recorded the complete sonatas of Mozart, the Bach English Suites, and the complete piano works of Schoenberg.
Russell Sherman was born in 1930 and educated in New York, beginning piano studies at age six. By age eleven, Sherman was studying with Eduard Steuermann, a pupil and friend of Ferruccio Busoni and Arnold Schoenberg. Sherman graduated from Columbia University at age nineteen with a degree in the humanities. He was a Visiting Professor at Harvard University and served as a Distinguished Artist-in-Residence at New England Conservatory. Sherman continued to explore and merited the title “a thinking man’s virtuoso.”
