Leonard Hokanson

Leonard Hokanson (August 13, 1931 – March 21, 2003) was an American pianist who achieved prominence in Europe as a soloist and chamber musician.

Early life and education

Born in Vinalhaven, Maine, he attended Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts and Bennington College in Vermont, where he received a master of arts degree with a major in music. He made his concert debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the age of eighteen. He was drafted into the U.S. Army after graduate school, and in December 1955, he was a private performing in the 11th Airborne Division Band at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Later, he was posted to Augsburg, Germany.

Career

He achieved early recognition as a performer in Europe, serving as a soloist with such orchestras as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, and the Vienna Symphony. He was awarded the Steinway Prize of Boston and was a prizewinner at the Busoni International Piano Competition in Bolzano, Italy. His numerous international music festival appearances included Aldeburgh, Berlin, Echternach, Lucerne, Prague, Ravinia, Salzburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Tanglewood, and Vienna.

One of the last pupils of Artur Schnabel, Hokanson also studied with Karl-Ulrich Schnabel, Claude Frank, and Julian DeGray. He was professor of piano at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts for ten years before taking a position as professor of piano at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington in 1986. He was also a permanent guest professor at the Tokyo College of Music.

He was a founding member of the Odeon Trio and as a chamber musician performed with such ensembles as the Vermeer Quartet, the St. Lawrence Quartet, the Ensemble Villa Musica, and the Wind Soloists of the Berlin Philharmonic and frequently performed duo recitals with the violinist Miriam Fried, the clarinetist James Campbell, and the horn player Hermann Baumann. As a pianist for song recitals, he played with numerous singers, including Martina Arroyo, Grace Bumbry, Melanie Diener, Edith Mathis, Edda Moser, and Hermann Prey. His collaboration with Prey extended over 25 years. He was also resident pianist with Bay Chamber Concerts in Rockport, Maine.

Hokanson's many recordings include the complete piano works of Walter Piston, Haydn sonatas, Mozart concertos, and Brahms intermezzi, as well as Schubert's complete works for violin and piano with Edith Peinemann, Brahms' sonatas for clarinet and piano with James Campbell, Beethoven's complete songs with Hermann Prey and Pamela Coburn, the complete piano trios of Brahms, Dvořák, and Schubert (Odeon Trio), previously unrecorded early piano works of Schubert, and Norbert Burgmüller's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra.

In 2001 Hokanson became professor emeritus at Indiana University but continued teaching solo piano, chamber music, and a German art song class at the school until his death in Bloomington, Indiana, from pancreatic cancer on March 21, 2003.

Discography

Harpsichord

Bach

Telemann

Baroque Airs and Adagios (Philips)

Il Canone di Pachelbel, Telemann, Vivaldi, etc. (Erato)

Solo Piano

Beethoven/Liszt

Brahms

Burgmüller

Haydn

Mozart

Piston

Schubert

Chamber Music

Bach

David Baker

Beethoven

Beethoven, Czerny, Kruft, Strauss

Brahms

Brahms, Franck

Brahms, Genzmer

Brahms, Jenner

Brahms, Shostakovich

Chopin, Martinu

Dvořák

Bernhard Heiden

Mozart

Pflüger

Piston

Saint-Saëns

Schubert

Schumann

Spohr, Volkmann

Strauss

Tanejev, Tcherepnin

Weber

Music in the Salzburg Mozart House (Eberhard Finke, Rudolf Klepač/Fortepiano) (Amadeo)

Lieder

Beethoven

Cornelius

Mendelssohn, Liszt, Franz, Wagner

Schubert

Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, etc.

Schubert, Schumann, Brahms

Schubert, Schumann

Schumann

Silcher

Strauss, Debussy

Weber

Wolf

References

  1. ↑ "Army Private To Present Musicale", The Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle, Clarkesville, Tennessee, volume CXLVII, number 335, December 19, 1955, page 9. (subscription required)
  2. ↑ "Leonard Hokanson, 71". Worcester Telegram & Gazette. Worcester Telegram & Gazette Corp. 2003-03-27. Retrieved 2009-12-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)