NCE Musicians

Present and Past

Dionne Laufman (piano)

Dionne Laufman is a prize winning pianist and chamber musician.  Ms.Laufman "is a poetic musician who has a marvelous sense of the movement of a line." Joan Reinthaler, The Washington Post.  Winner of the  Concert Artists Guild Competition in New York, she has performed throughout the United States, Europe and Canada.  She made her solo debut recital at Carnegie Recital Hall in l973.  Engagements outside the United States have included performances in Vienna, Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich, Bern, The Hague, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Montreal.  In the Washington area, she has appeared in recital at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,  the Phillips Collection, the Dumbarton Concert Series, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Barns at Wolf Trap, the Textile Museum, Meridian House, and with Artists To End World Hunger.  Dionne Laufman "Made magic at the keyboard...Brilliant."  Mark Adamo, The Washington Post.  As a repertory member of The Embassy Series, in Washington, D.C., she was among the first Americans ever to perform at the Russian Embassy and the Russian Ambassador's Residence.  Other Embassy Series concerts in which she participated, were at the embassies of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, The Netherlands, Great Britain, Hungary, Poland, New Zealand and Mexico.  Ms. Laufman is known to radio and television audiences on the East Coast. She  played with"a hearty extroverted style... energetic... exciting."  John Rockwell, New York Times.  Overseas audiences heard her broadcast over the Voice of America from the Kennedy Center, performing "Fantasy for Piano," a work written for her by composer Lawrence Moss.  She has recorded for Opus. 1 Records.  She was a pupil of eminent pianist Leon Fleisher, Konrad Wolff, Frank Glazer and Katja Andy.  Chamber music mentors included members of the Fine Arts Quartet, the New York Woodwind Quintet, pianist Frank Glazer, and violin pedagogue Dorothy Delay.  From l986-'89, Ms. Laufman was pianist and co-director of the Summer Serenades Chamber Music Festival at Strathmore Hall, which featured commissioned new works.  She has been a repertory member of several chamber music ensembles, including The Embassy Series, The Washington Music Ensemble, The Capitol Chamber Ensemble, and currently, the National Chamber Ensemble.  Dionne Laufman is co-founder of the Washington Conservatory of Music, where she served as Chairman of the Piano Faculty from l996-'99, and taught since its inception in l984. "Her playing was full of "passion and poetry."  Scott Duncan, Baltimore Evening Sun.

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