Biography
Bruce Vogt is a Canadian pianist and teacher who has received praise internationally for his mesmerizing performances, inspiring audiences across Canada and abroad. He has given recitals across Europe, as a soloist and with chamber ensembles, in such major centres as London, Paris and Prague, as well as in venues in Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Romania, among others. His upcoming visit to Japan in September of 2019 will be his fifteenth Japanese tour. He has also performed and taught in China.
Vogt grew up in Southern Ontario where he studied with Damjana Bratuz and Anton Kuerti. Later, he studied in the U.S. and Europe with Gyorgy Sebok, Louis Kentner, Fou Ts'Ong, Dario de Rosa and other notable musicians.
His repertoire is diverse, encompassing music from the sixteenth century to the present. He has long championed the music of contemporary composers, and has commissioned and premiered a number of new works by such Canadian luminaries as Murray Adaskin and Alfred Fisher.
He is also a dedicated performer on period instruments. One of his recordings features music of Robert Schumann performed on a restored 1864 Erard piano. Other recordings have focused on the music of Franz Liszt, which have established for him an enviable reputation as a Liszt interpreter. In 2011 – the bicentenary of the composer’s birth – he recorded two subsequent Liszt CDs. His love of collaborating with singers has led him to performing on a landmark recording of the music of the songs of Poldowski with Susan Young.
In addition to his career as a soloist and chamber musician, Vogt is Professor at the University of Victoria. Because he sees teaching and working with young pianists and teachers as an important commitment, he leads master classes and workshops and adjudicates for festivals.
In recent years, he has received many invitations in Canada and abroad to indulge another of his passions – improvising accompaniments to great films of the silent era. He has played for and lectured on films by Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, Griffith, Murnau and others.
“TECHNICAL PERFECTION PAIRED WITH EMOTIONAL EXPRESSIVENESS… compositions from Mozart, Chopin, Liszt resounded with seldom-heard perfection... What is apparent in his playing is the joy he takes in giving to others what he has so dazzlingly mastered..."
Usinger Anzeiger, ALTWEILNAU, GERMANY
"RARE GRANDEUR...I have never heard [Liszt's] Norma Fantasy played with such consummate largesse...I was mesmerized by Vogt's sheer control. In Liszt's Dante Sonata the structure of the work was never exposed and the final triumph of the piece rang from the piano with spine chilling inevitability."
The Times, LONDON, ENGLAND
"CONCERT OF THE YEAR... Splendidly subtle readings. Vogt made us listen to music that we might have missed, and some familiar items which we heard anew." Monday Magazine, VICTORIA, CANADA
"A VIRTUOSO...the audience was literally enraptured."
Le Républicain, PARIS, FRANCE
"...THOUGHTFUL AND THOUGHT-PROVOKING. The sophisticated yet ungimmicky presentation left the dry didacticism of lecture-recitals in the dust."
The Globe and Mail, TORONTO, CANADA
"MELANCHOLY MAGIC - Vogt's concentrated pianistic command is to be respected along with his great empathy for poetic mood; he was able to draw from a great reserve of power without placing this power in the foreground."
Frankfurter Allgemaeine Zeitung, FRANKFURT, GERMANY
"PROFOUND MUSICAL EMOTIONS - Bruce Vogt was masterful. In his performance [he] gave an astonishing demonstration of technical skill toward a constant revelation of great expressive understanding."
Wiesbadener Tagblatt, WIESBADEN, GERMANY
