About Us
Introducing piano4
The brilliant four-piano quartet formed in 2001, was first booked by Community Concerts on an 18-city tour from Vermont to California. More recently, Piano4completed an unprecedented tour of 28 cities in 39 days across the Midwest and Plains States, playing to sold out houses everywhere
Piano4 tours with their own four matching grand pianos, thrilling audiences with their stunning virtuosity and style. Their four distinct piano parts dazzle with scintillating fingerwork, passion, humor, and bravura artistry. During a concert at Washburn University, Piano4 received three standing ovations before intermission!
Piano4 programming ranges widely from Bach to Broadway. The core of their repertoire is the library of 400 transcriptions of the First Piano Quartet (FPQ), of early NBC Radio fame, after whom Piano4 is modeled. Programs include Bernstein's Candide Overture, the Valse from Faust, pieces by Gottschalk and Gershwin, works of Chopin and Liszt, plus orchestra, piano and 'pops' classics. Among other themed programs is 'The Art of Transcription' aimed at the chamber music audience. Piano4 now creates and commissions new works, concertos, and transcriptions, adding to this unique tradition.
Works with orchestra include the Bach Concerto for 4 Keyboards, the Inventions of Morton Gould, originally written for the FPQ, among others. Up-coming seasons will feature the newly commissioned Concerto for Four Pianos and Orchestra by New York composer, Gerald Busby.
The Piano4 pianists include; Norma Meyer, an animated virtuoso and respected conductor of youth orchestras, who serves as the General Manager of Piano4; Randall Hartman, a brilliant pianist from Doylestown, PA, where he maintains a large teaching studio; Michal Schmidt, an Israeli pianist and cellist who performs with numerous goups in the Philadelphia area and their newest member, Noam Sivan, a prolific composer and one of the young pioneers in the revival of improvisation in classical music today..
Based in Philadelphia, Piano4 was founded by pianist/conductor John Kozar who toured with them for their first five years. He continues to act as advisor and consultant.
Please enquire about The Commission Project and residencies.
NORMA MEYER has an active performing career. She is a
founding member of Piano4 and has toured with them since 2001.
Performances include the Kimmel Center and the opening night
of the Philadelphia Bach Festival, at which Ms. Meyer performed
Bach’s concerti for 2, 3 and 4 pianos.
Norma is also a member of the Ranaan Meyer Band. This group
creates arrangements of great works, with a distinctive 21st century
edge, in addition to new compositions. Their repertoire crosses and
connects the boundaries of music of the past, present and future.
Other collaborative pianist work includes performances with her son
Ranaan, cellist Nancy Stokking and violinist Jonathan Beiler. Recent
venues include Carnegie Hall, the Kimmel Center, the Philadelphia
Museum of Art and a concerto performance with the Ambler
Symphony, under the direction of Maestro Jack Moore (WRTI).
Additionally, she continues her lifelong commitment to music
education as an accompanist and coach. She holds degrees and
advanced study in piano performance and education.
Born into a musical family in Bucks County, PA, RANDALL HARTMAN
began taking piano lessons from his mother at age 5. A church organist at fourteen, Randall went on to tour with the Hartman Brothers, a duo-piano team. He has also appeared with the Grand Piano Orchestra. Randall has been touring the U.S. as a member of piano4 since 2002. Performances with Piano4 include opening night at the International Bach Festival in Philadelphia with Orchestra del Teatro Olimpico di Vicenza concertos for 3 and 4 keyboards. The Danboro Symphony in Illinois featured a performance with Piano4 in Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and the Danube Waltzes. Randall also performed at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia with Piano4. Randall has degrees in piano performance from Houghton College and Temple University. He has also served on the faculty of Eastern University in St. Davids, PA. He continues to serve as adjudicator and solo recitalist. He maintians a large teaching studio just north of Doylestown PA. Randall founded "Hartman Concert Artists", a non-profit organization celebrating the arts in Bucks County.
Israeli musician Michal Schmidt is pianist and cellist living in Philadelphia. She teaches at Haverford, Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore colleges as well as the University of PA. From 2000-2008 she was a Contributing Artist at Dickinson College. Michal is a member of numerous performing groups in the Philadelphia area including the Hildegard Chamber Players, Four Horizons and the Network of New Music. She studied at the Curtis in Institute of Music and later got her Masters degree at the University of the Arts. Michal completed her DMA at Temple University in 2002. Interested in new music, she has collaborated with composers in the US and abroad.. She has performed works of Richard Wernick, Osvaldo Golijov, Jay Reise, Ingrid Arauco, Jan Radzynski, Sylvia Glickman, Margaret Garwood, Cynthia Folio and many others. As an accompanist, Michal works regularly with singers and string players. Please visit Michal's website, www.michalschmidt.com
Graeme Burgan is an exciting and versatile pianist working within opera, chamber music, musical theatre, and jazz. He has performed with artists including Alan Held and Serena Benedetti; collaborated with composers Morten Lauridsen, Sean O’Boyle, and Rollo Dilworth; and toured Australia with percussionist Nick Parnell. He has performed at events including the Adelaide Fringe Festival, Bundaleer Forest Weekend, and Woodend Winter Arts Festival. Graeme has also appeared at the Andrea Clearfield Salon, the Melbourne Recital Center, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Friday Musicale in Jacksonville, and The Philadelphia Orchestra’s Sound All Around program. With a love for 20th century repertoire, Graeme particularly enjoys the dialogue between classical and jazz in musical culture.
Graeme is the Executive Director of Csehy Summer School of Music, is on the teaching faculty of Cairn University, and works regularly with the Allentown Symphony Orchestra. A collaborator at heart, Graeme has worked as a vocal coach and accompanist with many voice studios including Laura Brooks Rice, Amy Zorn, and Nova Thomas. An Australian native, Graeme makes his home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania with his wife Janine and their three sons.
The founder of Piano4, JOHN KOZAR is the Music Director of the
Grand Piano Orchestra, and producer of the multi-media production,
Grandissimo. John Kozar, applauded on five continents as conductor
and concerto soloist, has performed throughout the United States and
Mexico, in Britain, Europe, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Australia, New
Zealand, and China—from Adelaide to London, where he made his
British concerto debut with the London Philharmonic in a Royal Gala.
Kozar has graduate degrees from Indiana University in piano performance and conducting, and is listed in the International Who's Who in Music, and American Keyboard Artists.
Recordings
1. Overture of the Bells arr. K. Cessna
2. Christmas Vision First Piano Quartet
3. Fantasy on Parade of the Wooden Soldiers L. Jessel
4. Skater's Waltz E. Waldteufel
5. Winter Scene from The Nutcracker Ballet P. Tchaikowsky
The Nutcracker Suite, Opus 71a P. Tchaikowsky
6. Miniature Overture
7. March
8. Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
9. Trepak
10. Arab Dance
11. Chinese Dance
12. Dance of the Reed Pipes
13. Waltz of the Flowers
Piano4 in collaboration with Walter " Bunny" Sigler
14. A Christmas Dream J.S.Bach, Lyrics, Bunny Sigler, arr. FPQ
15. O Holy Night arr. Bunny Sigler and Piano4
- Paganini Variations First Piano Quartet
- Carmen Fantasy Georges Bizet
- Concerto for Four Keyboards, mvts. 2&3 J.S.Bach
- Grand Valse from Faust Charles Gounod
- Liebestraum No. 3 in A flat Major Franz Liszt
- Cocktail No. 5 First Piano Quartet
- Blue Danube Waltzes Johann Strauss
- Overture to Candide Leonard Bernstein
- American in Paris George Gershwin
piano4 on Tour
$20.00
($3.00 shipping)
Selected favorites including the Paganini Variations of the First Piano Quartet.
piano4 Christmas
$20.00
($3.00 shipping)
Selected favorites including the Nutcracker Suite and the Skater's Waltz.