Selected Live Performance and CD Press Quotes
"Joshua Pierce, an eloquent new-music pianist..."
- Allan Kozinn, New York Times
"tremendous dramatic flair...infectious bravura"
- Brian Hunt, London Daily Telegraph, London, England
"Pierce's combination of lyricism and rhythmic urgency is remarkable!"
- San Francisco Chronicle
"Joshua Pierce plays with precise sonorous and dynamic refinement!"
- Fono Forum, Germany
"Piano soloist Joshua Pierce played a trio of famous concertos in a blockbuster performance... Pierce met the challenge of the three concertos with energy to spare... Beethoven had swagger and panache aplenty, with clear runs and fine articulation...Pierce captured what Gershwin wanted: a jazzy style married to a classic gesture."
- Times Union, Albany, New York
"The measure of Joshua Pierce's greatness as a contemporary music pianist has been his awesome performances of the extended/exhaustive modern masterpieces, among them John Cage's Sonatas and Interludes, Charles Ives's Concord Sonata, and Michael Harrison's Revelations, which are keyboard challenges that separate giants from duffers."
- Richard Kostelanetz, writer, artist, and critic
...And in Joshua Pierce, (Composer Michael) Harrison has found a wonderful collaborator - a Grammy-nominated pianist whose 35 recordings range from the Liszt, Brahms and Beethoven concertos to the music of John Cage, with whom he worked closely. In past performances, this virtuosic music and its interpreter were as one: by turns tender, fierce, thoughtful, and soaring. The achievement is worth experiencing."
- Stuart Isacoff, "A Work That Harnesses Nature's Harmonies/New York Sun
"The American's bravura is polished and often fearless...the performances are never less than involving, technically commanding and delightful."
- Lawrence A Johnson, Gramophone,
"Pierce's performance caused me to go back and listen to it several times. This is my top choice for Strauss' Burleske."
- E. Smith "ES classical ear"
"Joshua Pierce is a pianist who need fear no comparison with the finest."
- William Hedley, MusicWeb-International.com
Pierce has a big, extroverted technique and temperament, and he likes to throw notes around in the grand manner, a la Liszt style. ... The Pierce E-flat (E-flat Concerto) is bombastic, intimate, and heroic in turn, a nice collaboration all around. ...Pierce turns on his afterburner fireworks for the Totentanz (in D Minor), whose three cadenzas provide him plenty of characterization."
- Gary Lemco, Audiophile Audition