Eve Egoyan / bio

Eve Egoyan / pianist


Born in Victoria, B.C., in 1964, pianist Eve Egoyan has been interpreting new works since 1994. Eve’s intense focus, command of the instrument, insightful interpretations, and unique programmes welcome audiences into unknown territory, bridging the gap between them and contemporary composers.

Eve has performed the world première and North American premières of many works by Canadian and international composers including Martin Arnold, Allison Cameron, Alvin Curran, Maria de Alvear, José Evangelista, Michael Finnissy, Rudolf Komorous, Jo Kondo, Michael Longton, Juliet Palmer, Stephen Parkinson, James Rolfe, Linda C. Smith, Ann Southam, Karen Tanaka, James Tenney, Judith Weir and Gayle Young. Many of these works were commissioned through the Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council, Laidlaw Foundation, CBC, Japan-Canada Fund and the British Council.

She has appeared as a solo recitalist in Canada, England, France, Germany, Portugal, Japan, and the U.S. including performances at in the Huddersfield Contemporary Festival, (Huddersfield, U.K.), the Other Minds Festival (San Francisco), the Vancouver New Music Festival, the Kobe International Modern Music Festival (Kobe, Japan), and the Sound Symposium (St. Johns). In 2001 she made her debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, playing the world première of Figures by Ann Southam for the Massey Hall New Music Festival.

Eve has released seven critically acclaimed solo discs, six of works by living composers and one disc of works by Erik Satie. She has acted as soloist and executive producer on all these discs. Her first solo CD, “thethingsinbetween”, was included in the Globe and Mail’s 1999 “Top Ten” list. Her most recent disc, "Simple Lines of Enquiry", a one-hour long piano solo by Ann Southam written for Eve, was selected as one of the New Yorker magazine’s ten top of 2009 discs by Alex Ross, music critic and author of the critically acclaimed “The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century”.

As an improvising musician Eve has had the opportunity to perform with Fred Frith, Michael Snow, Malcolm Goldstein, Anne Bourne, Martin Arnold, and Casey Sokol. Other collaborations include dance projects, interdisciplinary performance, film work (including the Oscar nominated “Capote”) and sound installations. Her most recent collaboration “Surface Tension” with her husband media artist David Rokeby (structured improvisations on a disklavier piano and real-time images) can be viewed at: http://www.vimeo.com/6154175.

Honours include numerous commissions and awards from the Canada Council, Ontario and Toronto Arts Councils, FACTOR, a University of Victoria Distinguished Alumna Award, a K.M. Hunter Award, and a Chalmers Award. Recently she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC) and was one of fifty Canadian performers and conductors given and designation of “CMC Ambassador” by the Canadian Music Centre.

Eve trained in standard repertoire at the Victoria Conservatory of Music with Anne Brayshaw and Winifred Scott Wood, the University of Victoria with Eva Solar-Kinderman, the Banff Centre of Fine Arts with György Sebök, the Hochschule der Künste in West Berlin with Georg Sava (German Academic Exchange Scholarship), the Royal Academy of Music in London, England, with Hamish Milne (Commonwealth Scholarship), and in Toronto where she completed her M.Mus. at the University of Toronto with Patricia Parr (Chalmers Award). www.eveegoyan.com

more about Eve´s CDs "Simple Lines of Enquiry" , "thethingsinbetween" , "Hidden Corners (Recoins)" , "The Art of Touching the Keyboard" , "Wu" , "Weave" and "Asking".