Paul Sánchez

Pianist and composer Paul Sánchez has appeared on CBS national television and in radio broadcasts nationwide, and has concertized throughout North America and Europe. Of his recent engagements performing music of Ives and Gershwin for Joseph Horowitz’ Music Unwound: American Roots, a program funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, Horowitz stated, “Sanchez’ account of Rhapsody in Blue was original - the most bewitchingly lyric I have ever encountered.”

His most recent CD, a collaboration with baritone Will Liverman titled Dreams of a New Day (Cedille Records, 2021), reached number 1 on Billboard’s “Traditional Classical Albums” chart for the week of February 27, 2021, and has been featured in print by the New York Times, the Washington Post, and others, and on-air by NPR, MPR, New York’s WQXR, and others. His CD Mysteria Fidei (Innova Recordings, 2020) features new music by composer David M. Gordon, recorded in collaboration with soprano Kayleen Sánchez and violinist Eka Gogichashvili.

In a Fanfare Magazine review of Sánchez’ 2016 CD Magus Insipiens, featuring three of Sánchez’ song cycles, Colin Clarke declares, “This is one of the most beautiful discs in my collection…. Haunting in the extreme,” while WFMT’s Henry Fogel, former president of the League of American Orchestras and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, states, “This is hauntingly beautiful music… generously filed with melodic inspiration and evocative atmosphere….  works of originality and a distinctive musical personality.”

An active recording artist, Sánchez has eight commercial releases in addition to recordings of his compositions which have been featured on the Soundset Recordings and Albany labels. Forthcoming CD releases include an album of spirituals by Shawn Okpebholo in collaboration with mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges and baritone Will Liverman, and an album of new piano works written for Sánchez by British composer Graham Lynch.

Dr. Sánchez is Director of Piano Studies and the International Piano Series at the College of Charleston in South Carolina. He is a co-founder of the San Francisco International Piano Festival, the Charleston Chamber Music Intensive, and the Dakota Sky Foundation.

Sánchez, a Fulbright fellow from 2005–2007, earned his Master of Spanish Music degree under the legendary Alicia de Larrocha. He studied with Tamás Ungár at Texas Christian University, graduating summa cum laude, and with Douglas Humpherys at the Eastman School of Music, where he completed his Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees.

Paul Sánchez is a Steinway Artist