Willis, Andrew

Pianist Andrew Willis performs in the United States and abroad on pianos of every period.  Noted for his mastery of early keyboard instruments, Willis participated in the first complete recording of the Beethoven piano sonatas on period instruments, in which his recording of Op. 106 was hailed by The New York Times as “a ‘Hammerklavier’ of rare stature.”  Among his other recordings on period instruments are Schubert lieder and Rossini songs with soprano Julianne Baird and early-Romantic song cycles with soprano Georgine Resick. Willis appears frequently as soloist with period-instrument chamber orchestras such as the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, the Apollo Ensemble, the Magnolia Baroque Festival, and the Philadelphia Classical Symphony.  His recent recital appearances include the National Music Museum, the Bloomington and Boston Early Music Festivals, and early-music societies in San Diego, Los Angeles, and London.  At the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he is Professor of Music, he directs the biennial Focus on Piano Literature.  He currently extends his investigation of historical performance practice into the Romantic era, performing Chopin on an 1848 Pleyel and Mendelssohn on an 1841 Bösendorfer, and into the Baroque, performing  J. S. Bach and Italian masters on a replica of a Florentine piano of the 1730s.