He received his Bachelor of Music with minors in French Language and Journalism from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1987, and holds a Masters degree in Piano Performance as well from Temple University in Philadelphia. He received his Doctoral degree in Piano from the University of Southern California where he was a student of Daniel Pollack and Stewart Gordon. He also studied at the Juilliard School of Music and Manhattan School of Music in New York. His teachers have included such well-known pianists as Adele Marcus, Theodore Lettvin, Robert Goldsand, Jerome Rose, and Nicholas Zumbro.

Dr. Galanter was the recipient of a fellowship and Spanish Music Prize two years in a row from the commission for "Musica en Compostela" from the Spanish Government in Santiago Spain. He has done extensive research in the origins of Spanish Piano Music of the 19th and 20th centuries, which is one of his specialties. Other awards include a first prize in the Jackson Symphony Piano Competition, the Young Artists Award from the Detroit Symphony, and fellowships and scholarships at the New England Conservatory of Music, Temple University in Philadelphia, and at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

As a pedagogue himself, he has been on the faculty as a piano professor at many institutions such as the Musikschule-Habichtswald in Germany where he lived for two years, The University of Arizona, Settlement Music School and at Temple University in Philadelphia. He was an adjunct professor at Camden College in New Jersey where he taught music and foreign languages, Assistant Lecturer in French at University of Southern California, and Faculty of Music and Performing Arts at Rio Hondo College in Whittier. In addition to his teaching, he is called on frequently to serve as a judge in various competitions in the Los Angeles area.

His recital activities have included complete performances of the Spanish Piano Suite Goyescas of Enrique Granados as well as Iberia of Albeniz, as well as varied recital programs including all Spanish composers. During the 1999-2000 season, he is scheduled to perform recitals of Spanish music in England, Ireland, Holland and Paris and in the year 2000 in Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Sydney and also in several cities in New Zealand. He will also go to Hong Kong in the fall of 2000 where he will give a series of lectures and concerts together on Iberian Music. A recent tour of Ireland and the UK included a performance of the Liszt E Flat Concerto with the Cork Symphony Orchestra.

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He continues to actively research and play the music of all the major Spanish composers: Albeniz, Blancafort, Granados, De Falla, Turina, Mompou and Montsalvatge. Senor Montsalvatge himself has lauded Mr. Galanter's interpretations of Spanish Music and invited Mr. Galanter recently to Spain to meet him and his wife after the composer heard Mr. Galanter's interpretations of his works on his newly released CD of all Spanish Music.

He also has played the French, Russian, and American Repertoires extensively and as well as the works of the Australian composers Percy Grainger and Arthur Benjamin. A newfound interest recently is in the works of the French composers Henri Sauguet, Pierre Sancan, Jean Francaix and the Belgian composer Marcel Poot. Unusual repertoire and neglected repertoire is one of his specialities.

This past academic year, Dr. Galanter has been a visiting professor of piano and artist in Residence at A&M University in Huntsville, Alabama USA.

Services Offered:

• Recitals both of Spanish Music and other periods and styles including the Russian, French and American Repertoires
• Master Classes
• Lectures on Spanish/Iberian and French Music
• Lecture-Recital
• Teaching
• Concerto Appearances

Repertoire

• Beethoven: Concertos No. 1, 2, 3 and 4
• Falla: Nights in the Gardens of Spain
• Grieg: Concerto in a minor Op. 16
• Liszt: Concerto no. 1 in E Flat Major
• Mendelssohn: Concerto in g minor
• Mozart: Concertos in G Major, d minor, A Major,
• Eb Major (K449) and C Major
• Rachmaninov: Concertos No. 2 and 3 and
• Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
• Ravel: Concerto in G Major
• Schumann: Concerto in a minor
• Saint-Saens: Concerto no. 2 in g minor
• Strauss: Burlesque for Piano and Orchestra
• Tchaikovsky: Concerto No. 1 in B Flat minor

Reviews

"Granados' Maiden and the Nightingale (from the Goyescas) assumed a new lushness at the hands of Neil Galanter, emphasized by rich and colourful tones"
"His (interpretations of Blancafort's) When Autumn Comes and In the Garden were most enchanting..."

The Chronicle (Brisbane, Australia)
 

"...impassioned playing always with an edge of the seat kind of playing..."

Akron Daily News (USA)
 

"...marvelous rhythmic control, a tremendous color palette and a playing reminiscent of the previous century..."

Het Nieuws van de Dag (Belgium)
 

"...viscerally exciting, powerhouse pianism but always with a poetic and passionate fluidity..."

HNA Zeitung (Germany)
 

"...dazzling, colourful, exquisitely shaped and utmost expressive playing..."

Yorkshire Evening Post (England)
 

"...at Marama Hall in Dunedin the Maiden and the Nightingale(Granados) and El Albaicin and El Polo of Albeniz brought enjoyable breath of Andalucia and the Costa Brava to our winter day..."

Otago Daily News (Dunedin, New Zealand)
 

..."he brought off the coda to Albeniz' El Polo with a most impressive explosiveness..."

The Press (Christchurch, New Zealand)

Contact details and further information

E-mail Neil Galanter

For further details, see Neil Galanter