Danae Dörken - NOSPR

"Is this young pianist the discovery of the year?" – asked the classical music magazine "Crescendo" – and answered in the affirmative. The reviewers of the magazine "Concerti" also see her "on her way to the top". The German-Greek pianist Danae Dörken belongs to the elite of internationally sought-after artists of a new generation, who captivates audiences and fellow musicians alike with her breathtaking technique, extraordinary stage presence, and musical depth.
Already encouraged by Yehudi Menuhin at the age of seven, Danae Dörken attracted attention early on in leading European concert halls with "her sparkling joy of playing" (Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger). After studying with the internationally revered piano teacher Karl-Heinz Kämmerling and the renowned soloist and teacher Lars Vogt, she is now a regular guest with leading orchestras such as the Munich Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, the Norrlandsoperan Symphony Orchestra, and the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra and performs at London's Wigmore Hall, Wiener Konzerthaus, Mozarteum, Tonhalle, Gasteig, Konzerthaus Berlin, Laeiszhalle, Alte Oper Frankfurt, and Beethoven-Haus Bonn. She regularly appears at important festivals such as the Kissinger Sommer, Schwetzinger Festspiele, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Dresdner Musikfestspiele, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the prestigious Kammermusikfest Spannungen in Heimbach.
Highlights of the 2021/2022 season include concerts at Dresden Music Festival, Festspielfrühling Rügen, and Boswiler Sommer, as well as appearances at the Brucknerhaus Linz and the Kölner Philharmonie, where she will be a guest with the Staatskapelle Weimar conducted by Dominik Beykirch. Danae Dörken will be playing twice at the Konzerthaus Berlin and will also perform with the Staatsphilharmonie in Nuremberg the Orchestre de chambre de Paris in the Philharmonie Paris, France. Recitals will take her to Latvia and the Megaron Mousikis in Athens (Greece). In Friedrichshafen, she gives concerts as part of the series Earthquake – Concerts with Young Artists. In the chamber music field, she continues her close collaboration with cellist Benedict Kloeckner and is part of two CD releases with violist Adrien La Marca and oboist Philippe Tondre.
With her sister and fellow pianist Kiveli Dörken, she can not only be heard in duo concerts at the Theater Coesfeld, among other venues but since June 2021 also in their joint podcast "the sister trill", which is available on all major streaming platforms. In it, the two young artists talk freely, humorously, and openly about music, competition between sisters, and their everyday lives as musicians.
As a passionate chamber musician, Danae Dörken regularly plays with well-known international artists such as Gustav Rivinius, Sharon Kam, Lars Vogt, Artur Pizarro, Carolin Widmann, Benjamin Beilman, and Katia & Marielle Labèque.
Her benchmark CD recording of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 and the rarely performed Piano Concerto No. 2 by Mendelssohn with the Royal Northern Sinfonia received enthusiastic reviews. In 2012 Danae Dörken released her debut album of works by Janáček. Her solo CDs with fantasies by Schumann, Schubert and C.P.E. Bach (on ARS Produktion) won the ICMA Award. Her latest albums East and West (ARS Produktion) and Between Nostalgia and Revolution (Genuin) were enthusiastically received by critics and nominated for several international music awards. She has recently begun an exclusive collaboration with the label Berlin Classics. Her first album under this framework will be released in spring 2022.
Since 2015, Danae and Kiveli Dörken have been organizing the Molyvos International Music Festival on the Greek island of Lesbos. In addition to the large summer festival, benefit concerts and events with the artists of the festival (including Sebastian Manz, Marlis Petersen, Linus Roth, and Maximilian Hornung) take place throughout Germany. Danae Dörken's commitment to Greece, refugees, and the musical connections between Greece and Germany have repeatedly been the subject of reports on the television magazines "ttt" and "3sat kulturzeit", on WDR, and in numerous other media.