Biography
Hailed "brilliant" (The New York Times), "an artist to be taken seriously" (The Chicago Tribune), "electrifying" (The Dallas Morning News), "a mature and fascinating interpreter and an artist of intelligence, insight, and a genuine grace" (The Southampton Press), American pianist Elizabeth Joy Roe has emerged as a versatile musician of compelling passion, imagination, and integrity. She has captured universal acclaim from critics and audiences alike for her appearances as recitalist, orchestral soloist, and chamber musician. As the winner of the prestigious William Petschek Piano Debut Recital Award, Ms. Roe made her New York solo recital debut at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in April 2007. She made her New York concerto debut in 2005 under the baton of James Conlon, performing the Britten Piano Concerto at Alice Tully Hall. In 2003, she stepped in on short notice to replace the late John Browning for subscription performances of the Barber Piano Concerto—a work Browning had premiered in 1962 at the opening of Lincoln Center—with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra; The Delaware News Journal pronounced her pianism as "astonishing" and "stunning." Her 1997 debut with the Chicago Symphony II elicited accolades from John von Rhein of The Chicago Tribune: "Elizabeth Joy Roe supplied scintillation in the Grieg [Concerto]…A lot of pianists play the Grieg but not many adults twice the age of Miss Roe could make this familiar score sing so poetically or with such spontaneity."
Ms. Roe has performed at major venues around the world including Lincoln Center, Zankel Hall and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the 92nd Street Y, and Steinway Hall in New York; the Seoul Arts Center in Korea; Salle Cortot in Paris; the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC; Salón Dorado in Buenos Aires; the Ravinia Festival in Chicago; the Banff Centre in Canada; the Gina Bachauer International Piano Festival in Salt Lake City; and the Fourth World Piano Pedagogy Conference in St. Louis. She was exclusively chosen to perform for the Women for Women Association of the United Nations and for notable events celebrating the centennial year of The Juilliard School at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. She has appeared with the Milwaukee Symphony and Chamber Orchestras, the Juilliard Orchestra, the Prime Philharmonic Orchestra, the Ars Viva Symphony, and the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra, among others. Highlights of the 2007-2008 season include multiple chamber music performances with the Ensemble ACJW at Carnegie Hall, a recital on the Rising Stars of Ravinia series, an artistic residency for the U.S. Embassy in Argentina, solo and duo concerts nationwide, and concerto appearances in the US and abroad.
Ms. Roe has attended the Steans Institute for Young Artists at the Ravinia Festival, the Banff International Keyboard Festival, Pianofest in the Hamptons, the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival, and Music Academy of the West (as a fellowship recipient). She has worked with a multitude of renowned musicians including Leon Fleisher, Claude Frank, Miriam Fried, Joseph Kalichstein, Ralph Kirshbaum, Robert Levin, and Arie Vardi. An avid chamber musician, she has collaborated with numerous musicians and ensembles. She has established a groundbreaking piano duo partnership with Greg Anderson. The Anderson & Roe Piano Duo are known for their dynamic performances, exciting compositions, and revolutionary four-hand piano technique.
A Chicago native, Ms. Roe began her piano studies when she was six years old. Prior to matriculating at The Juilliard School in 2000, she studied with Emilio del Rosario, Vladimir Leyetchkiss, and Theodore Edel. At Juilliard she went on to work with Yoheved Kaplinsky. Her career was launched at the age of 13 with a grand prize victory at the IBLA International Piano Competition in Italy. She has since been honored by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, the National Association for Professional Asian Women, the Music for Youth Foundation, and the Samsung Foundation of Culture.
Ms. Roe’s wide-ranging career includes world premieres of new music, live performance broadcasts and interviews on TV and radio (appearing on NPR, the BBC, and MTV), and a variety of innovative artistic projects. Committed to arts advocacy, she is currently a teaching artist fellow for The Academy—A Program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and The Weill Music Institute. As part of this new fellowship program, she teaches at the Abigail Adams School in Queens. Engaged in a vast array of pursuits, she is a Soros Fellow and a five-time laureate of the National French Contest. As an undergraduate at Juilliard, she wrote a thesis exploring music in the fiction of Mann, Proust, and Forster, for which she was awarded Scholastic Distinction at her graduation in 2004. In recognition of her artistic and academic achievements, she was invited to attend the 2006 International Achievement Summit in Los Angeles as a student delegate. She has also directed an interactive performance project featuring Juilliard pianists, given community service concerts, conducted master classes for young musicians, served as an adviser to the PianoArts National Competition, and participated in an educational residency program for the Van Cliburn Foundation. Ms. Roe earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School under a full scholarship.