March 12, 2015—A University of Oregon faculty member has recently adopted an important role on the national stage. Alexandre Dossin, associate professor of piano performance and piano literature at the UO School of Music and Dance, has been named Vice-President of the prestigious American Liszt Society.

 

The American Liszt Society is the most important organization in the US dedicated to the music and life of the great 19th-century Hungarian composer Franz Liszt.

 

Dossin first joined the American Liszt Society in 2005, and in 2008 was named to the organization’s Board of Directors. More recently, Dossin has served as president of the organization’s Oregon chapter, and in 2012 was artistic director for the society’s national festival, hosted by the UO.

 

“I am honored and humbled to have the opportunity to help shape the future of the American Liszt Society, an organization with the laudable goal of bringing to life the work of one the world’s most important composers,” Dossin said. 

 

Dossin earned his MFA from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory in 1996, and completed his doctorate in 2001 at the University of Texas at Austin. He joined the UO faculty in 2006. Dossin has previously served on the faculties of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (2001-02) and the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire (2002-06). 

 

An accomplished performance pianist, Dossin won both first prize and a special prize in the 2003 Martha Argerich International Piano Competition in Buenos Aires, and has placed in numerous additional international piano competitions. Dossin is an active recording artist, and his discography includes over fifteen albums and Schirmer Performance Editions, several of which are dedicated to Liszt’s piano music.

 

Recently, Dossin has undertaken the “In Beall with Brahms” series, an ambitious concert cycle featuring the complete chamber works with piano by Johannes Brahms, performed with strings musicians in installments throughout the 2014-15 and 2015-16 academic years in Beall Concert Hall on the UO campus. 

 

The American Liszt Society was incorporated in 1964. The purpose of the society is to promote scholarship and general understanding of the full creative and historical significance of Franz Liszt on the education and development of both the composition and performance of music throughout the Western World. Each year the society’s festivals have presented member talent and outstanding guests, with an aim to bring Liszt’s ideals and philosophy into the contemporary setting.