Barbara Nissman (born December 31, 1944, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American pianist. She is especially known for her interpretations and performances of the works of Alberto Ginastera and Sergei Prokofiev which feature prominently in her repertoire.Piano concerto repertoire of Barbara Nissman (as of 30-Dec-2015) She is also a writer, a producer of a series of DVDs, and a guest clinician presenting concerts, master classes and lectures world-wide.
Nissman's international career was personally launched by Eugene Ormandy with debuts arranged in all of the major European capitals"Nissman Debuts" (Blog Berlin1969.com) after he heard her perform as a student at the University of Michigan. She subsequently made her American professional debut as soloist with Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. She has also performed with some of the leading orchestras in Europe, including the London Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony, the Rotterdam Philharmonic and the Munich Philharmonic. In the United States she has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, the National Symphony Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra, among others. She has worked with major conductors of our time, including Eugene Ormandy, Riccardo Muti, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski and Leonard Slatkin. ("Distinguished Graduates", Phil. H.S. for Girls website)
The final composition of Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera, Piano Sonata No. 3, was dedicated to Nissman; its first performance was given at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center in 1982. Nissman uncovered the manuscript of Ginastera's Concierto Argentino in the Fleisher Collection of the Free Library of Philadelphia and reintroduced the piece in 2011 with the blessings of the composer's estate. In 2010, the last composition by Benjamin Lees, Visage, was written for Nissman. She has also participated in many other premiere performances."Little Orchestra Society in Liebermann Premiere", New York Times, April 23, 1985
Nissman made history in 1989 by becoming the first pianist to perform the complete piano sonatas of Sergei Prokofiev in a series of three recitals in both New York and London. Her recordings of this repertoire represented the first complete set of Prokofiev's piano sonatas made available on compact disc.
In June 2014 at Steinway Hall in New York City, Nissman launched her record label Three Oranges Recordings, devoted to furthering classical music and making it more accessible.Barbara Nissman at Steinway Hall, June 2014 (YouTube.com)
Education and awards
Nissman attended the University of Michigan on full scholarship and received a Bachelor of Music degree in 1966. Upon graduation she was awarded the Stanley Medal (named after Albert A. Stanley, Director of the School of Music from 1888 to 1921), "presented annually to the graduating senior...most outstanding in his or her curriculum, with special consideration given to scholarship and public performance.""Departmental Awards Acknowledge Achievement", Michigan Daily Digital Archives
In 1966 she was awarded a three-year National Defense Education Act Title IV fellowship for her master and doctoral studies at the University of Michigan. Nissman was also awarded a three-year post-doctoral grant from the university (underwritten by the Power Foundation in 1969) to begin her international performing career. In 1981 she was the recipient of the Michigan Alumnae Council's Athena Award, bestowed annually since 1973 "on outstanding alumnae who have distinguished themselves in professional and humanitarian endeavors," ("Athena Award", Michigan Alumni Association website) and the School of Music's Citation of Merit Award in 1996, presented annually "to recognize and honor individuals who have made outstanding contributions to society, their profession, [or to the university]." ("Hall of Fame", U. of Michigan's School of Music, Theatre and Dance website)
Nissman also received grants from the Martha Baird Rockefeller Foundation and The Philadelphia Foundation, as well as a National Endowment for the Arts recital grant to present the Prokofiev sonata series at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center in 1989.
In 2003, Nissman was one of 23 pianists profiled in the article "Hall of Legends," which appeared in the Steinway & Sons 150th Anniversary Commemorative Publication.Rachel Pleasant, "Hall of Legends", Steinway & Sons 150th Anniversary Commemorative Publication, 2003, page 130
In 2006, Nissman was elected to the Court of Honor of Distinguished Daughters of the Philadelphia High School for Girls "for outstanding lifetime achievement as an internationally acclaimed concert pianist, recording artist and educator."
In 2008 Nissman was a recipient of the Governor's Arts Award from the State of West Virginia for "Distinguished Service to the Arts." In March 2016, she was honored by the State of West Virginia Division of Culture and History with its "Order of the Arts & Historical Letters" as well as its "Excellence in Support of the Arts" award."Governor's Arts Awards Gala To Take Place Tomorrow at Culture Center," March 9, 2016 (W. Virginia Division of Culture and History website)
In March, 2020 Nissman received the Governor's Lifetime Achievement Award in the Arts from the State of West Virginia.'Governor’s Arts Awards Presented Nine Awards to Individuals and Organizations and Ten Legislative Leadership Awards", March 6, 2020 (W. Virginia Division of Culture and History website)
In June, 2023, Barbara Nissman was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame joining well known classical musicians: George Crumb, Eleanor Steber, Phyllis Curtin and jazz and country greats from the state of West Virginia."Barbara Nissman inducted into WV Music Hall of Fame", RealWV, 6/19/2023."WV Music Hall of Fame Inductees of 2023", West Virginia Music Hall of Fame website."Barbara Nissman 2023 West Virginia Music Hall of Fame Induction Vignette", at YouTube, uploaded 5-Jun-2023.
In May, 2024, Barbara Nissman was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music degree from West Virginia University."Barbara Nissman, Honorary Doctor of Music", West Virginia University Honorary Degrees website.
Alberto Ginastera
Barbara Nissman has long been associated with the music of Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera, and the composer's final work, Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 54 (1982) is dedicated to her.Steve Schwartz, "ClassicalNet Review," 2005 (Classical.net website) In 1976 she was invited by the composer to play his Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 28 (1961) in Geneva at his sixtieth birthday celebration, where she performed the work with L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande conducted by Jean-Marie Auberson.Schwartz-Kates, Alberto Ginastera, A Research & Information Guide, page xxiv (Internet Archive website) She also presented the Netherlands premiere of the concerto at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and its UK premiere with the BBC Symphony, and has performed the concerto with the Chicago Symphony, (Chicago S.O. Radio Broadcast, 1-Nov-1990; THEODORE, Online Catalog of the ROSENTHAL ARCHIVES of the CHICAGO S.O.) St. Louis Symphony and the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Slatkin.
In 2006 she co-hosted a five-part BBC Radio 3 series that featured Ginastera as Composer-of-the-Week.BBC Radio 3 'Composer of the Week', Alberto Ginastera In 2011, with the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kenneth Kiesler, she performed all 3 piano concertos in one evening including Concierto Argentino for piano and orchestra (an early work written in 1935 and then withdrawn from the catalogue by the composer shortly after its first performance) and the first performance in its original form of Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 39 (1972). Nissman et al.'s disc of all three concerti on the Pierian labelJessica Duchen, Ginastera: Music for piano and piano chamber ensemble, BBC Music Magazine, Jan. 20, 2012 represents the first recording of all three works and the "official reintroduction" of the Concierto Argentino. After Nissman discovered this concerto in the Edwin A. Fleisher Collection of Orchestral Music in Philadelphia, Aurora Natola-Ginastera, the widow of the composer, granted her exclusivity to perform the work and also to make available its first recording. Nissman is also the editor of the new critical edition of Piano Concerto No. 2, published by Boosey & Hawkes.Boosey & Hawkes, Ginastera Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 39 (1972)
In 2016 Nissman celebrated Ginastera's 100th birthday with a series of concerts devoted to the man and his music at Spectrum in NYC"Barbara Nissman Plays Ginastera 'Piano Sonata no. 3'" (YouTube.com) and also at Kings Place, London"In concert – Barbara Nissman plays Ginastera at Kings Place", Richard Whitehouse, 4/27/2016 (arcana.fm website) as well as master classes and lectures throughout the UK. On April 28, 2016, Nissman gave a lecture and performed works by Ginastera at a special celebration held at the Argentine Embassy in Washington, D.C., "04/28/2016, Concert Tribute to Alberto Ginastera""Concert at the Argentine Embassy in Washington D.C." (YouTube.com)
Nissman's article "Remembering Alberto Ginastera--a centenary tribute" appeared in the April–June 2016 issue of Musical Opinion (UK)"Remembering Alberto Ginastera--a centenary tribute", Musical Opinion, April–June 2016.
Nissman has recorded Ginastera’s complete solo piano repertoire and also his piano/chamber works with Aurora Natola-Ginastera, cello; Ruben Gonzales, violin; and the Laurentian String Quartet.ALBERTO GINASTERA: The Complete Music for Piano & Piano/Chamber Ensembles, 3OR-01, Three Oranges Recordings website.
Her video documentary, Alberto Ginastera, "A Man of Latin America", A Masterclass with Barbara Nissman includes interviews with the composer and his family as well as the conductor Leonard Slatkin, Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake & Palmer and jazz pianist Chick Corea. Masterclasses and performances by Barbara of his three piano sonatas and his early Danzas Argentinas are also included.Alberto Ginastera, "A Man of Latin America", A Masterclass with Barbara Nissman, Three Oranges Recordings website.
Sergei Prokofiev
Nissman made history in 1989 by becoming the first pianist to perform the complete piano sonatas of Sergei Prokofiev in a series of three recitals in both New York and London, and premiered the two-page fragment of Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 10 in E minor, Op. 137 (1952) during her Prokofiev series at Lincoln Center.B. Nissman BBC TV perf. of Prokofiev 10th sta. (1989) Her recordings of this repertoire represented the first complete set of Prokofiev's piano sonatas made available on compact disc.David Nice review, BBC Music Magazine, Jan. 20, 2012
As a Prokofiev scholar and authority, Nissman first visited the Soviet Union in 1984, at the height of the Cold War, as a guest of the Embassy of Denmark in Moscow. In 1998 she returned to Russia as a guest of the Moscow State Conservatory to present master classes and concerts of Prokofiev's music, and also presented master classes at the St. Petersburg Conservatory.James Buescher, "Saved by an Iron Curtain," Lancaster Online, Sep. 11, 2013
In commemoration of Prokofiev's 100th birthday in 1991, Nissman performed the complete cycle of his piano sonatas throughout Europe and the United States.Robert Cummings, "Artist Biography," ALLMUSIC.com