Deirdre Brenner

Pianist Deirdre Brenner believes in the power of storytelling through concert curation. Over the past two decades she has grown a multifaceted career which combines performance, teaching and artistic leadership.

Deirdre has performed chamber music and art song recitals throughout the USA, Europe and Asia in venues including the Wiener Musikverein, Wiener Konzerthaus, Wiener Volksoper (Vienna), The Kennedy Center (Washington, DC), Teatro Real (Madrid), Philharmonie Essen, Kunsthalle Hamburg, Stadthalle Bayreuth, the National Concert Hall (Dublin), and the Hollywell Music Room (Oxford). She has appeared at festivals including the Seoul Spring Festival of Chamber Music, Oxford Lieder Festival, Aix-en-Provence Festival, West Cork Chamber Music Festival, Schubertíada Vilabertran, Gustav Mahler Festival Steinbach, Rhodes Chamber Music Festival and Portogruaro International Music Festival.

Deirdre has partnered with artists including Wolfgang Holzmair, Birgid Steinberger, Tara Erraught, Michael Spyres, John Chest, Layla Claire, Elena Copons, Dorrotya Láng, Sophie Junker, Christina Gansch, Margaret Plummer and Klemens Sander, and has performed as soloist with the New Hampshire Philharmonic, Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra, and the Arnold Schoenberg Chor, among others. Recent collaborations have included projects with Madison Ballet. She has recorded for broadcasts on NPR, ORF, RTÉ and BR-Klassik. Further musical projects have taken her to Venezuela, Egypt, Jerusalem, the West Bank, Samoa and the Kingdom of Tonga.

After almost two decades living in Vienna, Deirdre joined the piano faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2025. She taught previously at the Anton Bruckner University in Linz, the Joseph Haydn Conservatory in Eisenstadt, IES Abroad, and the Performing Center Austria in Vienna. She has given masterclasses internationally.

In 2013 Deirdre co-founded the Boyne Music Festival (BMF) in Drogheda, Ireland, an annual summer festival of chamber music, poetry and song. Currently serving as Co-Director, the BMF has been celebrated for its exciting programs in unique historic settings in the Boyne Valley. From 2013 until 2018 she also curated the concert series Mosaïque in Vienna which fused art song with other artistic forms in innovative thematic programs.

Born in Massachusetts, Deirdre earned a Bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College with a double major in Engineering Sciences and Music, and Master's degrees from both the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Konservatorium Wien (MUK) in Vienna.

http://www.deirdre-brenner.com/

Updated September 2025