Award-winning pianist Sara Daneshpour joins CCM's faculty

UC College-Conservatory of Music Interim Dean Jonathan Kregor has announced the addition of award-winning pianist Sara Daneshpour to the college’s roster of distinguished performing and media arts faculty members. Hailed by the Washington Post for creating "transfixing poetry" during her performances, Daneshpour’s appointment as Assistant Professor of Piano begins on Aug. 15, 2023.

In orchestra concerts and solo recitals, Daneshpour has stunned audiences with an unusually wide repertoire ranging from Bach to Boulez, a dazzling technique, and an exceptional level of artistic depth and sincerity. Her performances have been described as "a powerhouse account, producing enough tone for two pianists in the process" by the Baltimore Sun, while the New York Concert Review has proclaimed that Daneshpour's playing lavishes "colour on oft-neglected lines, illuminating subtle beauties." Her current solo program of Etudes by Chopin and Ligeti combines two of the most intriguing and most demanding works ever written for the piano.

Daneshpour has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Germany, Russia, Finland, France, Sweden, Spain, Israel and Japan. She has been heard at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, Carnegie Hall in New York and at the Great Hall of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow.

Daneshpour is the third prize winner of the 2017 Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition, along with the 2014 prize winner at the Seoul International Music Competition in Seoul, Korea, and 2013 Laureate of the ProLiance Energy Classical Fellowship Awards of the American Pianists Association. She is the first prize winner of the XII Concours International de Musique du Maroc, second prize winner of the 2007 William Kapell International Piano Competition, and first prize and Gold Medal winner of the 2007 International Russian Music Piano Competition.

Born in Washington, DC, into an Iranian-American family, Daneshpour has studied under the direction of Leon Fleisher at the Curtis Institute of Music, with Yoheved Kaplinsky and Oleg Volkov at the Juilliard School, and with Sergei Babayan at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

"It is an honor to join the exceptional faculty at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music," said Daneshpour. "I greatly look forward to guiding CCM’s students to their full artistic potential at this outstanding institution."

"Students come to CCM to learn from dedicated educators who are also celebrated and active performers, which makes Sara Daneshpour an ideal addition to our faculty," said Kregor. "I want to recognize the excellent work of our search committee chaired by Michael Chertock, which included faculty members Dror Biran, Awadagin Pratt, Sandra Rivers and Keyona Willis. We are all excited to have Sara join the CCM family."

Sara Daneshpour is represented by Felsner Artists.

Featured image at top: New CCM faculty member Sara Daneshpour. Photo/Kaupo Kikkas