Dr. Thomas Lanners Bio

Thomas Lanners has appeared as a solo and collaborative pianist and clinician throughout the U.S. and abroad, presenting his New York solo debut in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in 2004. His performances have been broadcast nationally and internationally on programs such as National Public Radio’s Performance Today and RTÉ Radio 1’s Sunday Miscellany in Ireland, among many others. He currently serves as Professor of Piano at Oklahoma State University.

Lanners’ latest recording, Ned Rorem: Piano Works, Volume 2, was released worldwide by Centaur Records in 2009. The disc has received much critical praise, including the following from respected critic Donald Rosenberg’s review in the Cleveland Plain Dealer: “The piano pieces on this fine recording attest to Rorem’s penchant for lyrical and dramatic contrast. … Thomas Lanners brings exceptional detail and urgency to the repertoire, taking as much care with inner voices as he does with arching statements. Grade: A.” Thomas’ previous CD, Ned Rorem: The Three Piano Sonatas, was released by Centaur in 2007. Robert Schulslaper wrote, in a Fanfare magazine review of both Rorem volumes: “Lanners plays [all the virtuoso pieces] to the hilt … and he’s also a sensitive musician who communicates the essence of Rorem’s varied moods. Additionally, his album notes are so “spot on” that I felt obliged to quote him throughout my review. Recommended.” Mark Lehman, in an American Record Guide review, wrote of the Sonatas disc: “It’s especially pleasing to have all three of Rorem’s sonatas on one disc, superbly played by Thomas Lanners, and in clear, vivid sound. … Anyone who cares about mainstream 20th Century piano music should seek out this superlative recording.” In a review of his 2005 release, Touches of Bernstein: The Complete Published Piano Music of Leonard Bernstein, critic Jed Distler wrote for ClassicsToday.com: "Thomas Lanners totally understands this music, pointing up the jazzy qualities to idiomatic perfection as well as projecting Bernstein’s lyrical generosity without milking it … All told, Lanners' loving mastery easily holds its own in any company. Warmly recommended."

Thomas was awarded a grant in 2010, through the Centaur label, from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music Recording to record works of Pulitzer winner Ross Lee Finney, having also received a Copland grant for his first Rorem CD. His championing of American piano music was the topic of an interview article, titled “Pianist Thomas Lanners: Spreading the Good Word,” in a 2010 issue of Fanfare.

tom lanners 07 Thomas presented a master class on the NYU Steinhardt School of Music’s Piano Artist Master Class Series, the most prestigious series of its kind in the U.S., in February 2012. Renowned pianists who have taught master classes on the series in recent years include Garrick Ohlsson, Anne-Marie McDermott, Martin Canin (of the Juilliard faculty), Ursula Oppens, Alan Feinberg, Andre Laplante, Julian Martin (Juilliard), Malcolm Bilson, Jon Kimura Parker, Jeremy Denk, and John O'Conor. Lanners presented a master class, numerous lessons and two lectures during a one-week residency at the Eastman School of Music in 2008.

He is an active writer on musical topics, with several feature articles having been published in American Music Teacher magazine, the refereed journal of the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA). His most recent AMT article appeared in 2010, with another, “The Art of Teaching Master Classes: A Collaboration Between Teacher, Students and Audience,” to be published in an upcoming issue. He has also authored articles for Clavier magazine and the new piano pedagogy newsletter SoundPoint (in a 2011 issue).

Also active as a clinician, he presented sessions at the 2009, 2005 and 2001 Music Teachers National Association conferences. In 2012 Lanners will present a session at the Texas Music Teachers Association’s annual conference in Dallas, and another at the College Music Society’s South Central Chapter conference. Thomas will serve as a performer, master class teacher and adjudicator at the 2012 Lee University International Piano Festival and Competition in Tennessee (along with Matti Raekallio, Professor of Piano at the Juilliard School, and Tian Ying, Associate Professor of Piano at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and 1989 Van Cliburn International Competition finalist).

He also gave sessions at the 2010, 2008 and 2000 Oklahoma Music Teachers Association conferences, and in 2012 was chosen by OMTA conference featured guest artist Anne Epperson, Professor of Collaborative Piano at the University of Texas-Austin, to serve on a panel to discuss collaborative performance topics. Lanners has adjudicated at MTNA’s West Central Division piano competitions in 2006, South Central Division competitions in 2002, the Eastman School of Music’s International Piano Competition for High School Students in 2000, and at numerous Ohio, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas Music Teachers Association competitions.

Thomas presented two sessions at Eastman’s Summer Chamber Music Institute in 2007, and taught master classes in 2009 at the Universities of Colorado in Boulder and Northern Colorado in Greeley. He taught a master class for vocal and piano duos and collaborated with tenor Richard Novak in a recital at George Mason University in 2009 as well. Thomas played a solo recital in 2007 on the Pianistes à la Maison du Peuple series at the Centre Culturel Jacques Franck in Brussels, and another at the Rode Pomp in Gent, Belgium. He also played a recital to conclude “American Music Week” at Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas that was broadcast live worldwide on WSUiR, the university’s Internet radio station. In 2007 he performed on the Classical Mondays recital series in Preston Bradley Hall at the Chicago Cultural Center, the city’s preeminent recital venue, and was a guest artist on the “12:30 Fridays” recital series at the University of Western Ontario in Canada in 2006.

Professional activities for the 2005-2006 academic year included a recital and lecture at the University of North Texas; performing a chamber music recital at the OK Mozart International Festival; collaborating with tenor Richard Novak in a recital at the University of North Texas; adjudicating for the Texas Music Teachers Association’s District 4 piano competitions in Dallas; presenting a recital and lecture as the conference artist for the East District Conference of the Oklahoma Music Teachers Association; playing a solo recital at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond; and presenting a master class at the Amadeus Piano Festival in Tulsa.

Since 2001, Thomas has played solo recitals at Northwestern, Syracuse, Louisiana State, Wichita State and Baylor Universities, the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music, the Universities of Western Ontario in Canada, Northern Iowa, South Carolina, and Oklahoma, and the Tulsa Performing Arts Center. He presented a lecture and recital as the conference artist for the OMTA West District Conference in 2004, and gave a lecture-recital and master class (encompassing both solo and collaborative piano literature) at the University of Colorado-Boulder in 2005.

In 2003 he performed with Walfrid Kujala, Northwestern University professor of flute and former Chicago Symphony flutist, Richard MacDowell, professor of clarinet at the University of Texas at Austin, and Nancy Ambrose King, professor of oboe at the University of Michigan. He also collaborated with Leone Buyse, professor of flute at Rice University and former Principal Flutist, Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops, and with Swedish clarinetist Hakan Rosengren in 2001. Thomas performed as both a soloist and chamber musician at the Universities of Iowa, Wichita State, Iowa State, and Missouri-Columbia in 2000.

One of Dr. Lanners' former OSU students worked for several years at the Juilliard School of Music as an Associate Opera Coach until 2007, and now coaches operas at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music and at Chapman University outside Los Angeles. Other students have been accepted into graduate piano performance degree programs at the Eastman School, the Universities of Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Southern California, Kansas, Missouri-Kansas City, and the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. They have had success in state and regional competitions, winning both Oklahoma Music Teachers Association competitions (including first place winners in 2011, 2010, 2006, 2005 and 2003, and numerous runners-up), MTNA Collegiate Artist honors for the state, and MTNA Senior winners, most recently in 2010 and 2009. From 2002 through 2006, Lanners served as College Faculty Forum chair for the Oklahoma Music Teachers Association, representing on the OMTA Board all collegiate music faculty in the state and acting as the organization’s liaison to MTNA.

Lanners received his Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Piano Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music as a student of Barry Snyder, after earning his Bachelor of Music degree summa cum laude at Florida State University as a student of Leonidas Lipovetsky. He also studied under John Perry at the Aspen Music Festival and Jerome Lowenthal at the Music Academy of the West, and has performed in master classes for such renowned artists as Pascal Devoyon, Jeffrey Kahane, Dominique Merlet, Anton Nel, Cécile Ousset and Nelita True.

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