Danae Dörken
Piano
Piano
Biography
With her temperamental and sensitive interpretations, German-Greek pianist Danae Dörken has attracted the attention of the international music world and is one of the most sought-after artists of a new generation internationally, captivating audiences and musical colleagues 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 renowned piano pedagogue Karl-Heinz Kämmerling and the renowned soloist and teacher Lars Vogt, she is now a regular guest of leading orchestras such as the Munich Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, the Norrlandsoperan Symphony and the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra, and performs at London’s Wigmore Hall, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Mozarteum Salzburg, the Tonhalle Zurich, the Beaux-Arts Brussels, the Philharmonie Cologne, the Gasteig Munich, the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, the Alte Oper Frankfurt and the Beethoven-Haus Bonn. She regularly performs at important festivals such as the Kissinger Sommer, Schwetzinger Festspiele, LuganoMusica, Schleswig-Holstein Musikfestival, Dresdner Musikfestspiele, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the prestigious chamber music festival “Spannungen” in Heimbach.
The 2024/25 season is full of highlights for Danae Dörken. She will appear at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York with her long-time chamber music partner Sebastian Manz. As a piano soloist, she will perform Gershwin’s Piano Concerto and de Falla’s Nights in Spanish Gardens in concert with the Kiel Philharmonic Orchestra, Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto with the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz and Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto with the Bad Reichenhall Philharmonic Orchestra. She has also been invited to return to the orchestra of the Komische Oper Berlin, where she will perform the piano part in Scriabin’s Prometheus under the baton of James Gaffigan.
2023 Danae Dörken released the duo CD Apollo & Dionysus (Berlin Classics) with her sister Kiveli and three albums with the French oboist Philippe Tondre on the Klarthe label. Her landmark CD recording of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 and Mendelssohn’s rarely heard Second Piano Concerto with the Royal Northern Sinfonia under Lars Vogt received glowing reviews. In 2012, Danae Dörken released her debut album of works by Leoš Janáček. Her solo CD with Fantasies by Schumann, Schubert and C.P.E. Bach (ARS Production) won the ICMA Award. Her latest album Odyssee (Berlin Classics) was received with critical acclaim and nominated for several international music awards.
On the occasion of the 100th birthday of the Greek national composer Mikis Theodorakis in 2025, a very personal album by Danae Dörken will be released on the Berlin Classics / EDEL label. It will include Theodorakis’ Piano Concerto Helikon and his First Suite for Piano and Orchestra, recorded with the Staatskapelle Weimar conducted by Kornilios Michailidis.
A passionate chamber musician, she founded the Molyvos International Music Festival (MIMF) in 2015 with her sister Kiveli Dörken on the island of Lesbos, her mother’s birthplace. Between the financial crisis and the refugee drama, the MIMF not only brings the tradition of classical music to Lesbos, it also strengthens the musical relationship between Germany and Greece on the long term. The festival in 2025 is entitled CHAOS and will take place from 12 to 19 August with the participation of her sister Kiveli Dörken, Antje Weithaase, Tanja Tetzlaff and many more. For the first time, musicians who landed on Lesbos as refugees and are now integrated into local society will also be performing a concert as part of the festival.
Danae Dörken’s commitment to Greece, to supporting refugees and to strengthening the musical connections between Greece and Germany have repeatedly been the subject of reports on the TV programmes tttand 3sat kulturzeit, as well as on the broadcasting station WDR and in numerous other media.
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