Joseph Cisar

Former Guest Lecturer at Wheaton College-Conservatory of Music and current faculty member of Community School of the Arts, Mr. Cisar is an inspiring pianist and dedicated educator, teaching and encouraging musicians of all ages.

When he made his Chicago Orchestra Hall debut, Mr. Cisar was described as “a fleet-fingered soloist with talent.” His playing has been critically acclaimed as full of fire, intensity, elegantly shaped lines, and full of climactic drive. The Chicago Sun-Times declared “Joseph Cisar, a pianist who can find the charm and make it thoroughly beguiling for all of us.” Past performances included two tours with Leonard Bernstein through Israel and Europe, numerous performances with orchestra, and more recently, the presentation of both books of the Chopin Études in performance and lecture-recitals demonstrating the fusion of the technical and musical aspects of the studies in their entirety.

Studies with Dr. Karen Shaw at Indiana University and further studies in New York with master teacher Germán Diez joined him to an impressive pedagogical lineage. Mr. Cisar, through study with Mr. Diez, continues a pedagogical lineage linking him to Claudio Arrau, Martin Krause, Franz Liszt, Carl Czerny, and finally to Beethoven.