Stijn De Cock

Hailed for his passionate and virtuosic piano playing by the East Hampton Star, internationally acclaimed pianist Stijn De Cock maintains an active musical career as a soloist, chamber musician, and teaching artist in the US and abroad. His playing has been described as “alternating between the stormy and sublime, while getting to the heart of the music,” and praised for its ability to create “a most compelling musical narrative” (Amalfi Festival concert review).

De Cock’s recent concert seasons have taken him to five continents, with appearances in Kenya, China, Macau, Korea, Taiwan, Canada, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Italy, France, Belgium, Poland, the Czech Republic, Greece, and Spain in solo, chamber, and collaborative capacities. He has performed at prestigious festivals worldwide, among them the Amalfi Coast International Music and Arts Festival, PianoTexas, Pianofest in the Hamptons, the XIV NewSound Festival, the Interventions New Music Festival at the Great Gallery of the Toledo Museum of Art, the Prague International Piano Masterclasses, and the Gijón International Piano Festival. He has been a major prize winner in numerous competitions, including the Los Angeles International Liszt Competition, the Ann Arbor Society for Musical Arts Young Artist Competition, the Poland International Music Festival Piano Competition, and the Prix des Jeunes and Lions Club competitions in Belgium.

De Cock records for Centaur Records. His debut album, Fantasies & Transcriptions (Centaur CRC3979, 2023), drew critical praise from Fanfare. His forthcoming release, Sonatas and Fantasies, traces a chronological arc from Scarlatti through Scriabin.

As founding director of the Brancaleoni International Music Festival, De Cock built and led a summer festival in Italy’s Marche region for a decade, creating an intensive, integrated artistic learning environment for aspiring young pianists, singers, and string players from around the world. A sought-after teaching artist, he has presented masterclasses and lecture-recitals in Naples, Amalfi, and Maiori at the Amalfi Coast International Music and Arts Festival in Italy; at Charles University in Prague and the Pardubice Conservatory in the Czech Republic; at Tangaza College and the Kenya Conservatoire in Nairobi; at Wah Yan College and La Salle College in Hong Kong; and at Tunghai University in Taiwan. He has held faculty positions at the State University of New York at Fredonia, the University of Michigan, Schoolcraft College, Albion College, and the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point.

De Cock serves on the piano faculty of Florida State University’s College of Music as Associate Professor of Piano and Coordinator of the Keyboard Area, where he also directs the FSU Piano Institute.

As a student, De Cock was admitted to the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels at the unusually young age of fifteen, entering the studio of Evgeny Moguilevsky. He was trained in the tradition of Russian pianism: Moguilevsky was himself a student of the Moscow Conservatory’s legendary Heinrich Neuhaus, whose pupils included Sviatoslav Richter, Emil Gilels, and Radu Lupu. De Cock graduated from the Royal Conservatory with a Premier Prix and holds a Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Michigan, where he studied with Logan Skelton. He has also received guidance from Claude Frank, Robert McDonald, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Julian Martin, Matti Raekallio, Boris Slutsky, Malcolm Bilson, Martin Katz, Margo Garrett, and Marilyn Horne.

De Cock is an active member of the American Liszt Society, the College Music Society, and MTNA. His students have won prizes at state and international piano competitions, gained admission to competitive undergraduate and graduate programs, and participated in international music festivals.

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