Biography
Prize winner in the 2023 Prix Ravel, Hong Kong-born Canadian pianist Dane Ko is active as recitalist, chamber musician and educator on international stages. In the 2024-25 season, Dane will tour in recital to Montreal, Toronto, Hong Kong, and Macau, where he will also give masterclasses and workshops at The University of Hong Kong, University of Macau, and the University of Toronto. Chamber music performances this season include piano duo with Tong Wang, four- hands with David Potvin, and an appearance in the Belfast Chamber Music Festival in Maine.
As soloist, Dane has performed in such venues as the Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall, Koerner Hall of The Royal Conservatory in Toronto, and Le Château de Fontainebleau in France. Among Dane’s growing accolades are prizes at Prix Ravel, The Shean Piano Competition, The Glenn Gould School Chamber Music Competition, and the Canadian Music Competition “Stepping Stone”. Dane frequently appears in important festivals in Europe and North America. In recent years these include Mozarteum (Austria), Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival (United States), Domaine Forget (Quebec), and Fontainebleau (France) during which he was awarded second prize in the Prix Ravel presented by The Maurice Ravel Foundation, and the Prix Langage Musical - harmony prize established by Nadia Boulanger. A radio veteran, Dane has given interviews and performances on Florida’s Classical WSMR, Hong Kong’s RTHK Radio 4, and CBC Radio One.
In addition to his performance activities, Dane is a passionate educator and an award-winning research scholar. Dane serves as an instructor of piano at McGill University Schulich School of Music, maintains a robust private studio, and is in demand as a masterclass clinician. A tribute to his late teacher, Marietta Orlov, Dane’s ongoing doctoral project on the Romanian piano school centering on Professor Orlov’s pedagogical legacy won the 2024 Canada Graduate Scholarship – Doctoral Award by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). This major three-year research grant has little precedence of being awarded to a performer. Other research topics include mental practice strategies, on which he received repeated invitations to guest lecture at collegiate institutions including his alma mater, University of Toronto’s Graduate Piano Pedagogy Seminar. In May 2024, Dane was invited to serve on the inaugural Junior Jury of the Montreal International Piano Competition (CMIM).
Dane’s work as artist-educator is inextricably linked with his role as a global citizen. He believes that music is an incomparable channel to inspire change, engage diverse communities and reach all generations. Every season, Dane curates and brings outreach programs to hospitals, senior residences, public schools, and performs for the non-profit series “In Concert for Cambodia” in Montreal. Formed with two colleagues, Dane’s Covid- 19 initiative – “Play It Forward” offered musical services as incentive for donations. Through this, they were able support charities including 2-spirited People of the First Nations; The Youth Project; LGBTQ Youth Helpline. Keenly aware of the intersectionality of one’s artistic and personal life, Dane openly shares the unique path of his musical journey. He has been featured in an episode of “Out in the Open” on CBC Radio in conversation with fellow transgender pianist, Sara Davis Buechner, and was most recently the featured artist in the University of Macau MCMC Musicales event “Resonance of Life and Music”.
From his first encounter with music, Dane cultivated a diverse musical pallet that spans genres and cultures. Dane lived his first eleven years in Hong Kong with his father who was active in the Chinese traditional music scene as conductor, erhu and guzheng teacher. Forging his path as a classical pianist, his musical cultures eventually collided in opportunities to appear as soloist in the Yellow River Concerto with Yao Yue Chinese Orchestra in Hong Kong City Hall, and in duo with prominent soloists of Chinese instruments, including Erhu virtuoso George Gao. Beyond musical cultures, Dane’s personal relationship with music began without borders through improvisation. Dane’s love and affinity for spontaneous creation continues to permeate all the music he has encountered throughout his upbringing and into his professional career. He dabbles in jazz, popular music, and is a strong proponent of improvising ornamentation and cadenzas in Baroque and Classical repertoire. Among musical moments that sparked the most joy are off-the-score explorations both on and off stage.
In the classical music realm, Dane has had the privilege to train with preeminent artistic personalities across Europe, Asia and North America. These include Robert Levin, Klaus Hellwig, Jan Jiracek von Arnim, Ronan O’Hora, Benedetto Lupo, Eric Le Sage, John Perry, Jeremy Denk, John O’Conor, Rebecca Penneys, Wael Farouk, Roberta Rust, Ya-Fei Chuang and numerous others. His formal studies at the University of Toronto and The Glenn Gould School of The Royal Conservatory culminated in a Bachelor of Music in piano performance, an Advanced Certificate in Performance, a Master of Music in Piano Pedagogy and an Artist Diploma. Dane also holds the ARCT diploma from the Royal Conservatory of Music conferred with the National Gold Medal. Currently based in Montreal, Dane is pursuing the Doctor of Music degree at McGill University Schulich School of Music. Dane is always indebted to his primary teachers: the late Marietta Orlov, the late Anna Fomina, Lydia Wong and Ilya Poletaev, who remain his pillars in life and music.
Biography as of December 2024
