Argus Quartet - Michael Shapiro's Yiddish Quartet and Piano Quintet (2024)

A specialist in contemporary music, pianist Steven Beck has collaborated with a long list of prominent composers and ensembles. He also performs traditional repertory, including Bach's Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, which he plays annually at Brooklyn, New York's floating venue Bargemusic.

Beck was born on January 21, 1978, in Springfield, Virginia. He attended the Juilliard School in New York, studying with Seymour Lipkin, Peter Serkin, and Bruce Brubaker. His debut came with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, and he toured Japan as a soloist with the New York Symphonic Ensemble. Beck has appeared as a piano soloist with top orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and Mariinsky Orchestra in St. Petersburg, Russia. He became a familiar figure on the New York contemporary music scene, performing with such groups as Speculum Musicae and the New York New Music Ensemble; he is a member of The Knights (formerly The Knights of the Many-Sided Table), of Future in REverse (FIRE), and, with Susan Grace, of the piano duo Quattro Mani. In 2003, Beck made his recording debut on the Sequitur label, performing Elliott Carter's Double Concerto with harpsichordist Sara Laimon.

Beck is best known for his work in contemporary music, and he has worked with major composers, including Carter, Pierre Boulez, and George Crumb. During the 2011-2012 season, he appeared at New York's Guggenheim Museum, performing works by Charles Wuorinen. Beck also plays traditional repertory; one of his last appearances prior to the coronavirus pandemic that began in 2020 was with the New York Philharmonic in Saint-Saëns' Carnival of the Animals. His recordings -- which by 2022 numbered some 40 items -- have mainly focused on contemporary music, but he made several appearances in the Cascade label's complete series of the works of Beethoven. Beck recorded Peter Lieberson's Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Odense Symphony Orchestra in Denmark in 2014 for the Bridge label. He has continued to be associated with that label, issuing a solo album of George Walker's Five Piano Sonatas there in 2022. ~ James Manheim