Danae Dörken - Piano

Called ‚the discovery of the year‘ by classical music magazine crescendo and ‘on her way to the very top’ by concerti magazine, German-Greek pianist Danae Dörken is among the elite of internationally acclaimed artists of a new generation, electrifying audiences and peer musicians alike with her stunning technical skills, exceptional charisma and great profundity of her musical thinking.

A uniquely gifted talent at very young age, Danae received the support of Lord Yehudi Menuhin when she was seven, and soon began to cause a stir at major European venues with her ‚sparkling joy of playing’ (Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger). Following her studies with the internationally venerated teacher Karl-Heinz Kämmerling und with Lars Vogt, she is today a regular guest of major orchestras including the Munich Symphony, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Norrlandsoperan Symphony and Dusseldorf Symphony Orchestra. Ms Dörken has performed to great critical acclaim at London‘s Wigmore Hall, the Vienna Konzerthaus, Mozarteum Salzburg, and KKL Lucerne, Tonhalle Zurich, Beaux-Arts Brussels, at the Cologne Philharmonie, Philharmonie Essen, at Gasteig in Munich, Konzerthaus Berlin, the Elbphilharmonie and Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Tonhalle Dusseldorf, Frankfurt Alte Oper, and Beethoven-Haus Bonn. Danae Dörken also performs regularly at major festivals including Kissinger Sommer, Schwetzingen festival, LuganoMusica, Schleswig-Holstein Musikfestival, Dresdner Musikfestspiele, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and the renowned ‘Spannungen’  festival in Heimbach.

Highlights of the 2020/2021 season are Danae Dörken’s concerts with the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, her recital debuts in the Cesis Concert Hall in Latvia, as well as re-invitations to the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Dresden Music Festival and the Schumannfest Düsseldorf. Together with her sister, Kiveli, she will be playing the premiere of Faidros Kavallaris’ works for 2 pianos in Cyprus.

debuts with the During the 2019/20 season, Danae Dörken celebrated her solo debuts at the Lucerne Festival and the Tokyo Musashino Cultural Hall as well as debuts with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, the Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra and the Neues Kammerorchester Potsdam. Furthermore, chamber music engagements brought her to Wigmore Hall London, the Brucknerhaus Linz where she performed with violinist Benjamin Beilman as well as the Klavierfestival Ruhr, where she performed with her sister Kiveli, a pianist herself.

Being a passionate chamber musician, she has performed together with leading artists such as Lars Vogt, Gustav Rivinius, Sharon Kam, Artur Pizarro, Christiane Oelze, Carolin Widmann, Benjamin Beilman, Benedict Klöckner and Katia & Marielle Labèque. Together with her sister Kiveli, Danae Dörken regularly presents outstanding four-hand piano repertoire. In an SWR Stuttgart Radio co-production, Danae is recording three new albums together with oboist Philippe Tondre for Klarthe Paris.

Danae Dörken’s groundbreaking recording of the Piano Concerto No. 21 by Mozart and of the rarely performed Piano Concerto No. 2 by Mendelssohn (with Royal Northern Sinfonia) was released in 2016, to raving critical acclaim. Previously, her solo recording of fantasies by Schumann, Schubert und C.P.E. Bach (on ARS Produktion) was nominated for on ICMA Award. Her 2012 debut CD, featuring solo works by Leoš Janáček (also on ARS Produktion), received equally enthusiastic reviews. Her current two albums “EAST and WEST” (ARS Produktion) and “Between Nostalgia and Revolution” (GENUIN) have received raving reviews and were nominated for an ICMA Award, the Opus Klassik Award and the German Record Critics’ Award.

Of Greek descent, Danae Dörken founded the Molyvos International Music Festival (MIMF) in 2015 together with her sister on the island of Lesbos. Amidst the dramas of the European refugee crisis and the European financial crisis, her festival has become a major contribution to strengthening the connections with classical music in Greece. The festival today has all-year benefit events running also throughout Germany, featuring many of the MIMF artists including Marlis Petersen, Sebastian Manz, Maximilian Hornung, Philippe Tondre, Linus Roth, and Lars Vogt. Danae Dörken‘s service to classical music and the Greek island of Lesbos has been repeatedly covered by major media outlets including German, Austrian and Swiss national television programs ‘ttt’ and ‘3sat kulturzeit’, on WDR television and in countless newspaper articles, radio features and other reports.