“Is the young pianist the discovery of the year?” asked the classical music magazine crescendo — and answered yes. The reviewers at concerti magazine likewise see her as “on the way to the very top”: at just twenty-six, German-Greek pianist Danae Dörken belongs to the elite of internationally sought-after artists of a new generation who captivate audiences and fellow musicians alike with breathtaking technique, extraordinary stage presence, and musical depth.
Already supported by Yehudi Menuhin at the age of seven, Danae Dörken drew early attention in leading European concert halls with “her sparkling joy in playing” (Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger). After studying with the internationally revered piano pedagogue Karl-Heinz Kämmerling and with Lars Vogt, she is today a regular guest of leading orchestras such as the Munich Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, and the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra, and performs at London’s Wigmore Hall, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Mozarteum Salzburg, KKL Lucerne, the Cologne Philharmonic, the Essen Philharmonic, the Gasteig Munich, the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, the Tonhalle Düsseldorf, the Alte Oper Frankfurt, and the Beethoven House Bonn. She regularly appears at major festivals such as the Kissingen Summer, the Schwetzingen Festival, LuganoMusica, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, and the renowned chamber music festival “Spannungen” in Heimbach.
Highlights of the 2018/19 season included concerts with the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Symphony Orchestra, the Norrlandsoperan Symphony, and the Antalya Symphony Orchestra. She also gave her recital debut at, among others, the Rheingau Music Festival, the Staatstheater Darmstadt, and the Museum Villa Rot. In chamber music, she will once again perform with American violinist Ben Beilman in Dresden, go on a piano duo tour of southern Sweden with her sister Kiveli, and, alongside a CD recording for SWR, has concerts planned in Germany with cellist Benedict Kloeckner. In the 2017/18 season, Danae Dörken made recital debuts at, among others, the Tonhalle Zurich, the Palais des Beaux-Arts Brussels (Bozar), the famous Piano aux Jacobins festival in Toulouse, and the PianoEspoo Festival in Finland. She once again appeared at the Konzerthaus Vienna, in Bolzano, at the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad, and at the International Music Festival Koblenz, and made her North American debut with, among others, the Las Vegas Philharmonic Orchestra. As a passionate chamber musician, she has already performed alongside artists such as Lars Vogt, Gustav Rivinius, Sharon Kam, Artur Pizarro, Christiane Oelze, Carolin Widmann, Benedict Klöckner, and Katia & Marielle Labèque.
Together with her sister Kiveli, Danae Dörken regularly presents groundbreaking four-hand piano repertoire. With oboist Philippe Tondre, she recorded a CD of newly discovered chamber music masterworks on commission for SWR. Her benchmark-setting CD recording of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 and Mendelssohn’s rarely heard Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, released in 2016, received glowing reviews. Before that, Danae Dörken had released solo CDs of fantasias by Schumann, Schubert, and C.P.E. Bach (on ARS Produktion), for which she was honored with the ICMA Award, and in 2012 her debut CD of works by Leoš Janáček (also on ARS Produktion), which was enthusiastically received by critics.
In 2015, Danae Dörken, who is of Greek descent, founded the Molyvos International Music Festival (MIMF) on the island of Lesbos together with her sister. Amid financial crisis and the refugee crisis, MIMF not only brings the tradition of classical music to Lesbos, it also sustainably strengthens the musical relationship between Germany and Greece. Today, benefit concerts and events take place year-round throughout Germany together with leading MIMF soloists such as Marlis Petersen, Sebastian Manz, Maximilian Hornung, Philippe Tondre, Linus Roth, and Lars Vogt. Danae Dörken’s work has repeatedly been the subject of media coverage, including features on the television magazines ttt and 3sat Kulturzeit, on WDR, and in numerous other media outlets.
