Janice Weber is a summa cum laude graduate of the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Cécile Genhart and Eugene List. During her sophomore year, she performed the entire Book I of Bach's Well Tempered Clavier from memory. Following graduation, Miss Weber continued her studies in New York with Nadia Reisenberg. She was a fellowship student at Tanglewood for two summers, receiving the C.D. Jackson Award for Excellence.
Miss Weber has performed with the American Composers Orchestra, Boston Pops, Chautauqua Symphony, Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, Longwood Symphony, New Hampshire Symphony, Sarasota Pops, and Syracuse Symphony.
She has toured Yugoslavia, Turkey, and the Baltic States under the auspices of the US Information Service. At the invitation of the American Liszt Society, she recently presented recitals and master classes in Beijing, Shenyang, Xian, and Chengdu, China. Solo appearances include the White House, the National Gallery of Art, Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, and the Newport Festival.
In addition to her career as a musician Miss Weber is also a respected writer. Her third novel, Frost the Fiddler (St. Martin's Press) was chosen a Notable Book of theYear by the New York Times. Her fifth novel, Hot Ticket, was published by Warner Books in November 1998.
Miss Weber is a member of the piano faculty at the Boston Conservatory and performs frequently on its chamber music series. She is a contributor to the Musical Times in London, Clavier, and other music publications.
She has been an adjudicator for the National Endowment for the Arts. She has also served on juries for the Gilmore Foundation, the American Piano Association, the Russian-American Music Foundation, and the Aaron Richmond Competition at Boston University.
Her eclectic recordings include RachmaninoffÂs complete transcriptions (IMP); with the Lydian Quartet, Leo Ornstein's vast Piano Quintet (New World Records); flute and piano works of Sigfrid Karg-Elert; and waltz transcriptions of Godowsky, Rosenthal, and Friedman (IMP). For VAI, Miss Weber recorded Liszt's last Hungarian Rhapsody, one of only two living pianists to be included in a compendium of historic performances by nineteen legendary artists. This recording subsequently won the International Liszt Prize. Miss Weber also recorded the notoriously difficult 1838 version of Liszt's Transcendental Etudes. Time magazine wrote, "Liszt later simplified these pieces into the still ferociously difficult Transcendental Etudes (1852 version) for fear that no one else could play them. There may now be several fire-eating piano virtuosos who can execute the original notes, but few can liberate the prophetic music they contain as masterfully as Janice Weber does here."
For Naxos, Miss Weber has appeared with Michael Lewis on a CD of the music of Charles Griffes (8.559046), and her latest recording is a collection of the works of Leo Ornstein (8.559104).
Visit Janice Weber's website at www.janiceweber.com
June 2002
