DANIEL ANASTASIO, PIANO

A soloist and chamber musician based in San Antonio, Texas, pianist Daniel Anastasio combines an intellectual curiosity with “technical prowess and emotional sensitivity” (Rivard Report). His performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 3, conducted by Leon Fleisher with the Ithaca College Chamber Orchestra, was “the highlight to everyone’s ears, if the full-house of standing ovation were any indication” (ECM reviews). Anastasio was a concerto competition finalist at Cornell University, Stony Brook University, and Juilliard, where he won the Mieczyslaw Munz Scholarship. He received fellowships to Music Academy of the West, Kneisel Hall, Tanglewood Music Center and Yellow Barn Music Festival. Anastasio is the co-founder of Unheard-of//Ensemble, a group dedicated to commissioning composers and premiering their works.

Recently joining the faculty of San Antonio College as a full-time piano instructor, Anastasio is a member of Agarita, a San Antonio-based chamber ensemble dedicated to making classical music accessible to everyone in San Antonio, and reaching the whole of its community including the most underserved populations. Anastasio received a Bachelor of Arts degree in music and philosophy at Cornell University under Xak Bjerken, and a Master of Music degree at The Juilliard School under Jerome Lowenthal. Last Spring he received his Doctor of Musical Arts at Stony Brook University, under Gilbert Kalish and Christina Dahl.