James Behr is an American pianist, composer, recording artist & educator.

Biography

Pianist and composer James Behr is a graduate of

The Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elit ...

(MM and BM) and has performed throughout the U.S. Behr won first prize in the 2013 Bradshaw & Buono International Piano Competition featuring a solo performance at Carnegie Hall (Weill). He served as Classical Artist in Residence for The Florida Symphonic Pops (aka The Boca Raton Pops), performed on TV show "Talk of the Town," and was a featured soloist on radio, including

WNYC WNYC is the trademark and a set of call letters shared by WNYC (AM) and WNYC-FM, a pair of nonprofit, noncommercial, public radio stations located in New York City. WNYC is owned by New York Public Radio (NYPR), a nonprofit organization that di ...

and WXEL programs "Keyboard Artists" and "Morning Scherzo." A

Steinway Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway (), is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in Manhattan by German piano builder Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The company's growth led to the opening of a ...

Artist and adjunct professor at

Manhattan College Manhattan College is a private, Catholic, liberal arts university in the Bronx, New York City. Originally established in 1853 by the Brothers of the Christian Schools (De La Salle Christian Brothers) as an academy for day students, it was la ...

, Behr has performed as solo pianist at

Alice Tully Hall Alice Tully Hall is a concert hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in the Upper West Side neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The hall is named for Alice Tully, a New York performer and philanthropist whose donations assist ...

(

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 millio ...

), The Chautauqua Festival, and as concerto soloist with The

Virginia Symphony Orchestra The Virginia Symphony Orchestra (VSO) is an American orchestra administratively based in Norfolk. The VSO performs concerts in various venues in Virginia, including: * Chrysler Hall, Norfolk * The Sandler Center for the Performing Arts, Virginia B ...

, The Naples Philharmonic, The

Miami City Ballet Miami City Ballet is an American ballet company based in Miami Beach, Florida, led by artistic director Lourdes Lopez. MCB was founded in 1985 by Toby Lerner Ansin, a Miami philanthropist. Ansin and the founding board hired Edward Villella, f ...

, and The North Miami Symphony. He received scholarship awards from Juilliard and The Chautauqua Music Festival. Behr was also a prizewinner in the Society of American Musicians Competition, IL; Cullowhee Music Festival Competition, NC; Boca Raton Music Guild Competition, FL; Five Towns Music Festival Competition, NY; and Chicago Music Club Piano Competition, IL. Behr's original music includes symphonic works, his piano concerto, "Europa,"; four musicals ("The Count of Monte Cristo", "Dreamquest", "E-date" and "The Jungle Island"), R&B ballads, solo piano works, "Suite Memoirs" (new age piano), "Kaleidoscope Suite" (fusion rock/jazz) and "Prisms" (nu-jazz). His music was performed by The Gold Coast Orchestra and The Sinfonia Virtuosi Orchestra. Behr recorded several CD albums of his original works and Chopin. Among his recent works as a composer is the musical The Count Of Monte Cristo (James Behr musical) adapted from the classic novel by

Alexander Dumas Alexandre Dumas (, ; ; born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (), 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas père (where '' '' is French for 'father', to distinguish him from his son Alexandre Dumas fils), was a French writer. ...

. His musical, E-date, was a prize winning finalist in the New York New Theatre Works Festival in 2014, where it appeared at the Off-Broadway Times Square Center. A composer/lyricist in the

BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) is a performance rights organization in the United States. It collects blanket license fees from businesses that use music, entitling those businesses to play or sync any songs from BMI's repertoire of over 20.6 milli ...

in New York, he is a graduate of

(MM and BM),

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

(B.A.) and

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...

(J.D.).

References

http://apps.bebo.com/my-band/artist/jamesbehr http://www.arramuse.com/blog/new/james-behr.htm {{DEFAULTSORT:Behr, James American male composers 21st-century American composers Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Juilliard School alumni American male pianists 21st-century American pianists 21st-century American male musicians