Rorianne Schrade, pianist

Winner of a wide array of honors and prizes (from Concerts Artists Guild International Competition, Washington International Competition, the Kosciuszko National Chopin Competition, the Liederkranz Foundation, the National Arts Club, Artists International, N.Y. Chopin Foundation Council, The Marcia Polayes Competition, and many others), Rorianne Schrade has been likened to “a whirlwind unleashed” (Gannett Westchester Newspapers).

An adventurous programmer with a large repertoire of rarities and established masterpieces, she has enjoyed praise for her recordings and live performances, whether in small towns and cities in the US, at the Wigmore Hall in London (2011), series in Paris (2009), or in her numerous performances at Weill Hall (Carnegie Hall, New York, from 1989-2017) and Lincoln Center (1979-2000).

Accolades from the press have been lavish, including from distinguished music critic Harris Goldsmith, who cited her "communicativeness ... delectable flair and... the nuance and flexibility that had this listener thinking of Rachmaninoff's own recordings" (New York Concert Review).

Virtuoso repertoire of the Romantic period has often been central in Rorianne’s programming, but she embraces a wide range of styles and periods, from the earliest keyboard music and lesser known gems to works of the 21st century, including several US premieres and works dedicated to her. Her performances of Russian music have been many, including works and transcriptions of Glinka, Glazunov, Liadov, Liapounoff, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Borodin, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, and many more, including a focus during her student days on Balakirev, whose music she recorded for a 1995 release (Centaur CRC 2236).

Recordings, along with the above-mentioned 1995 Balakirev CD, include a 2005 CD of Piano Transcriptions of Johann Strauss II (Centaur Records, CRC 2721) and a 2008 CD called “Homage to Chopin” (Impromptu Classics, IC-060801), including works of Chopin, Flagello, and Rachmaninoff.

The miracle of music came early to Rorianne through her parents, renowned musicians Robert and Rolande Schrade, from whom she received a lifetime of inspiration. She began performing at the age of five with her family of pianists at the family-founded Sevenars Music Festival in Massachusetts (later cited by Time Magazine as "one of the best small music festivals in the USA,"), and she continued her studies at the Juilliard School, starting in the Pre-College on Saturdays from age eleven with Katherine Parker and Jane Carlson.

No stranger to hard work, Rorianne has been employed as a musician since age sixteen (not counting her childhood Sevenars performances which were rewarded with bags of penny candy from family friends!). After long days as a scholarship student at the Chapin School in NY (where she won a variety of academic awards), she taught music privately and also worked as studio pianist for the dance classes of Anita Zahn, a disciple of Isadora Duncan.

At Juilliard in the college division (after having made the difficult choice to decline Early Action admission to Yale), she was blessed to study with renowned teachers, including Nadia Reisenberg (until Miss Reisenberg’s death in 1983) and subsequently (after a few months with Adele Marcus) with Josef Raieff. Rorianne received Bachelor and Master of Music degrees simultaneously in 1985 (with thanks to awards from the Governors' Committee on Scholastic Achievement, the Leopold Schepp Foundation, and Juilliard’s William Petschek Fund and Judelson Fund) while continuing her private teaching and performing.

A perpetual student, Rorianne then earned a doctorate from Temple University on a Russell Conwell Fellowship with Harvey Wedeen, an additional scholarship from the Leopold Schepp Foundation, and later a teaching assistantship in the college along with work for the school’s gifted young musicians’ program.

Concerti are a special love for Rorianne, and she devoted her doctoral dissertation to Mozart Concerto cadenzas (as she had previously created her own for performance). In addition to Mozart concerti, Rorianne has enjoyed playing piano-orchestra works of Bach, Haydn, Beethoven, Chopin, Gottschalk, Liszt, Saint-Saens, Schumann, Prokofiev, Ravel, Rachmaninoff,  etc…

In chamber repertoire, Rorianne has played trios, quartets, and quintets in recitals of Beethoven, Brahms, Copland, Dvořák, Fauré, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Schubert, Shostakovich, and others, in addition to cello-piano and violin-piano duo repertoire with distinguished musical colleagues.

In two-piano repertoire, Rorianne performed for decades with the Schrade Family Pianists (the first musical family to be listed on the Steinway artist roster ) both in critically acclaimed concerts at Lincoln Center, New York (starting in 1980), and yearly at Sevenars Concerts.

Rorianne’s nearly annual solo programs at Sevenars (until she became the Executive Director) were described as "Impeccable" and "Stunning" (headlines, The Daily Hampshire Gazette), and as possessing "consummate artistry" (Union-News, Springfield, MA.) and "a wild range of expressiveness" (The Berkshire Eagle, MA). 

Among many labors of love have been Rorianne’s efforts to sustain Sevenars, now anticipating its 56th season. When not handling administrative and property-related hurdles, Rorianne continues performing and teaching privately. She left her position at the Manhattan School of Music Preparatory Division in 2005 after a rewarding decade of teaching talented youngsters piano, theory, ear training, and musicianship.

A wearer of many hats, Rorianne also writes and speaks about music. She has given lectures (notably on Balakirev in conjunction with her Centaur recording), participated in panel discussions (including for Concert Artists Guild’s Schumann celebration at Symphony Space), and given masterclasses, including at Brooklyn College Conservatory in 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic struck.  She has also adjudicated regularly for auditions and competitions. Since 2006, she has reviewed for New York Concert Review; all reviews of her own recitals quoting from New York Concert Review are, of course, from several years prior to her writing for them!

Rorianne is a Steinway Artist as soloist (in addition to her ensemble listing with the Schrade Family Pianists) and lives in New York City with her brilliant polymath husband of two decades.