Joseph Gurt

Faculty Associate, The Dorothy Taubman Seminar
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Emeritus Faculty, Eastern Michigan University
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Joseph Gurt, hailed by the New York Times as having “all the assets of a first class pianist...”, enjoys a distinguished career as a solo pianist, chamber musician, adjudicator and teacher. A graduate of the Juilliard School of Music, Mr. Gurt has appeared at Carnegie Recital Hall, the Library of Congress, the Library of the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, and Detroit's Orchestra Hall. His performing engagements have taken him to Canada, Australia, Israel, Turkey, Taiwan, Singapore and many of the fifty United States. Active both as a concert soloist and chamber musician, he has appeared with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and many other orchestra and chamber music ensembles. He also concertizes frequently with his son pianist Michael Gurt, and his daughter soprano Naomi Gurt Lind.

Mr. Gurt has played on numerous local and national radio and television broadcasts, and has an extensive discography. A skilled interpreter of new music, he has recorded William Bolcom’s Piano Quartet and the Partita for Piano and Two-Piano Inventions of Anthony Iannaccone. He served for over thirty years on the piano faculty of Eastern Michigan University, recently retiring as full professor.

Trained by acclaimed pedagogue Dorothy Taubman, Mr. Gurt is an internationally recognized exponent of the Taubman Technique. He served for many years on the faculty of the Dorothy Taubman Institute of Piano, as well as giving lectures and master classes on several continents.

In 1995, he was invited by Fedora Horowitz to submit a composition for the Lyric Chamber Ensemble, with which he was long associated as a performer. The resulting piece, “Ragamuffin,” has since received numerous performances, and was taken up by the Michigan Music Teachers for its 1998 state convention. This marked the beginning of a new career as a composer, and several commissions and premieres have followed. Other compositions are “Concertango”, performed by Florida Atlantic University Piano Quartet, and “Simha”, commissioned by the Austin Chamber Music Center.

Reviews

“ . . . all the assets of a first rate pianist . . . ”

New York Times
January 26, 1973

“ The American Trio-- Joseph Gurt, piano, Charles Avsharian, violin and Jerome Jelinek, cello-- was formed ten years ago. All three are superlative musicians with full virtuoso technical equipment. They have achieved an effortless ensemble, playing instinctively as a unit. The result was a brilliant concert . . . ”

The Detroit News
November 12, 1979

“ Partita for Piano (Iannaccone) is brilliantly played by Joseph Gurt . . . ”

The Instrumnentalist

“ Joseph Gurt's incisive, clean playing allows us to hear a bustling, energetic, exciting piece well worth the listener’s attention. ”

The New Records

“ Joseph Gurt showed a quality of partnership rarely heard, the ability to combine impeccable craftsmanship with outstanding musicality; just the exact degree of support needed, not dominant but always heard. ”

Ukiah CA Daily Journal
March 31, 1983

“ Jelinek and Gurt brought the work to life with ease and skill, color and warmth . . .[they] explored the many riches in the piece with confidence and sensitivity . . . ”

Grand Rapids Press
December 11, 1989

“ Patrons of Bach presented an electrifying four-hand concert by internationally-acclaimed pianists Joseph and Michael Gurt . . . It was virtually impossible to distinguish between the four hands and, at times, an entire orchestra . . . ”

Key West Citizen
January 24, 1992

“ [Joseph and Michael Gurt] ...entertain, educate and entice their audience with scholarly acumen, technical perfection, and consistent control of the keyboard, while performing with an extraordinary warmth and joy which permeates the evening. ”

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