Jeffrey Sykes

Acclaimed by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as "a commanding solo player, the most
supportive of accompanists, and a leader in chamber music," pianist Jeffrey Sykes has
performed across four continents and collaborates regularly with leading instrumentalists
and singers. Last fall he gave a recital on Chicago’s prestigious Dame Myra Hess concert
series, and he recently returned from a tour of France that culminated in performances of
French solo and chamber music at the Musée des Impressionismes in Giverny, home of
Claude Monet.
Together with violinist Axel Strauss and cellist Jean-Michel Fonteneau, Sykes is a founding
member of the San Francisco Piano Trio, an ensemble noted for its virtuosic interpretations
of works ranging from the trios of Haydn and Beethoven to those of Leon Kirchner and Astor
Piazzolla. He is the co-founder and artistic co-director of the Bach Dancing and Dynamite
Society of Wisconsin (www.bachdancing.org), a highly-acclaimed and innovative chamber
music festival now in its twenty-ninth season. The festival is noted for integrating dance,
drama, and visual art into the concert setting and creating an approach to chamber music
that makes it more easily accessible to audiences. He is a regular guest artist with the
Brooklyn Chamber Music Society; the Cactus Pear Music Festival and the Olmos Ensemble in
San Antonio, Texas; and Music in the Vineyards in Napa Valley, California; and in 2007, he
served as the guest artistic director of Music in the Vineyards. He has recorded for the
Albany, CRI, Mandala, Centaur, and Cactus Pear record labels, and in spring of 2018
released the world premiere recording of Kevin Puts' song cycle In at the Eye on the Albany
label.
For eighteen years, Dr. Sykes served as the Music Director of Opera for the Young, a
preeminent producer and presenter of opera for children that has introduced more than two
million children to opera. He teaches piano, voice, and chamber music at the University of
California at Berkeley and California State University, East Bay. He coaches regularly for
CMNC and ACMP and coaches chamber music groups across the Bay Area. A recipient of the
Jacob Javits Fellowship from the United States Department of Education, he completed his
doctorate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.