Performer
Anton Nel, winner of the first prize in the 1987 Naumburg International Piano Competition at Carnegie Hall continues to enjoy a remarkable and multifaceted career that has taken him to North and South America, Europe, Asia, and South Africa.
Highlights of Mr. Nel’s four decades of concertizing include performances with the Cleveland Orchestra, the symphonies of Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, Seattle, Detroit, and London, among many others. (He has an active repertoire of more than 100 works for piano and orchestra.) An acclaimed Beethoven interpreter, Anton Nel has performed the concerto cycle several times, most notably on two consecutive evenings with the Cape Philharmonic in 2005.
Additionally, he has performed all-Beethoven solo recitals, complete cycles of the violin and cello works, and most recently a highly successful run of the Diabelli Variations as part of Moises Kaufman’s play 33 Variations.
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat, Anton Nel, piano.
Austin Symphony Orchestra, Peter Bay
The end of the epic Brahms Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major with the Ann Arbor Symphony conducted by Arie Lipsky. It’s always a thrill (and workout!) to play this concerto!
I’m very fortunate to have played several concertos with the San Francisco Symphony over the years and annually play on the symphony’s chamber music series at the Palace of the Legion of Honor. On this particular series of concerts in 2012 the great conductor Michael Tilson Thomas is leading me and the SFS in the super-fun Gottschalk Grande Tarantella for piano and orchestra.
He was also chosen to give the North American premiere of the newly discovered Concerto No. 3 in E Minor by Felix Mendelssohn in 1992. Two noteworthy world premieres of works by living composers include "Virtuoso Alice" by David Del Tredici (dedicated to, and performed by Mr. Nel at his Lincoln Center debut in 1988) as well as Stephen Paulus's Piano Concerto also written for Mr. Nel; the acclaimed world premiere took place in New York in 2003.
As a recitalist, he has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum, and the Frick Collection in New York, at the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, Davies Hall in San Francisco, and the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. Internationally he has performed recitals in major concert halls in Canada, England (Queen Elizabeth and Wigmore Halls in London), France, Holland (Concertgebouw in Amsterdam), Japan (Suntory Hall in Tokyo), Korea, China, and South Africa.
Possessing encyclopedic chamber music and vocal repertoire he has, over the years, regularly collaborated with many of the world's foremost string quartets, instrumental soloists, and singers. With acclaimed violinist Sarah Chang he completed a highly successful tour of Japan as well as appearing at a special benefit concert for Live Music Now in London, hosted by HRH the Prince of Wales.
Somewhere Over the Rainbow | Anne Akiko Meyers & Anton Nel | WGBH Music
The opening Chamber Symphony concert at the Aspen Music Festival in June 2015. In this photo, I just finished performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, with the wonderful Nicholas McGegan conducting. Such fun!
I played with the great violinist Sarah Chang for several years. In 2000 we were invited by HRH Prince Charles to perform a concert for Live Music Now at his summer home, Highgrove.
Mozart: Keyboard Concerto in D major, K. 107. Anton Nel, harpsichord
La Follia Austin Baroque
Mr. Nel is also an acclaimed harpsichordist and fortepianist. In recent seasons he has performed annual recitals on both instruments, concertos by the Bach family, Haydn and Mozart with La Follia Austin Baroque as well as the Poulenc Harpsichord Concerto (Concert Champêtre) with the Austin Symphony.