Walter Frank is a pianist, composer, teacher and researcher.
He graduated from Conservatorio Superior de Música “Manuel de Falla” in 1996 as Artistic Piano Professor, completing the course in four years practically as a free student. In the same year, he was selected by the Council for Higher Education of Israel as a scholarship holder for further studies at the Jerusalem Rubin Academy of Music and Dance with Maestro Allan Sternfield (Israel – USA), and later continued his studies at the Rubin Academy of the University of Tel-Aviv with Maestro Alexander Volkov (Israel – Russia).
Upon his return in 1999 he began to develop piano improvisations that led him to become professionally involved with the post-minimalist movement in the United States, where he met the composer William Duckworth (1943 – 2012) and with whom he held his first major international event, participating as pianist and composer in the epic webcast Cathedral (2001) based in New York and transmitted via the Internet around the world, registering his appearance in the New York Times as a participating Argentine pianist.
Between 2000 and 2003 he performed piano concerts and cycles of contemporary music, giving premieres of piano works by the composer Duckworth, including the world premiere of the work “Meditations on Satie”, at the composer’s request.
In 2003 he received a scholarship from Wesleyan University, USA, to pursue his master’s degree in piano and composition, where he studied with Anthony Braxton, Alvin Lucier and mainly with the composer and pianist Neely Bruce. He obtained his Master of Arts degree in 2005, dedicating his thesis to the piano works of William Duckworth. In the same year, he released his first major recording as composer/improviser with multi-instrumentalist Anthony Braxton, making a double CD set called “Duets 2004” produced by the British label Leo Records, with reviews in specialized magazines in France, Germany, Italy and the United States.
In 2006 he pursued Ph.D. studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, returning to Argentina at the end of 2007. In 2008 and 2010, he served as an adjunct professor in the study abroad programme run by San Diego City College in Buenos Aires.
He is currently a tenure professor at the Universidad del Salvador (USAL) where he serves as a pianist, teacher and composer in the undergraduate Dramatic Arts bachelors degree.
His piano repertoire includes works from the 20th and 21st century, as well as works from the traditional classical repertoire. He has performed as a soloist, in chamber groups and large ensembles, in prestigious venues including concert halls in Buenos Aires, Tel-Aviv, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Vermont. In 2005 he made his debut at the Renée Weiller Concert Hall, New York, with a programme of works composed specifically for the occasion by graduate composers from Wesleyan University.
As a composer his music has been heard in Argentina, Canada, the United States and Europe, with special emphasis on his piano improvisations, with international reviews of his recordings and performances.
He has been a senior researcher between 2015 and 2017 (USAL) and 2018 (University of Palermo). In terms of academic research he has published for Open Space magazine (United States – 2013), Telón de Fondo Magazine (Universidad de Buenos Aires – 2017), Faculty of Design and Communication of the University of Palermo (Buenos Aires -2018) and PyP Magazine (USAL – 2020).
His musical career has been sponsored by institutions and foundations such as Cancillería Argentina (1996, 2001, 2003, 2013), The Blumenthal Wolff Foundation (Israel, 1996), EMBA (Argentina, 2001), Ex- Fundación Bank Boston (Argentina, 2003), Meet the Composer (USA, 2004), Bucknell University (USA, 2005), The Middletown Commission on the Arts (USA, 2006), Fundación Judaica (2020), Fondo Nacional de las Artes (Argentina), MICA (Mercado de Industrias Culturales Argentinas, 2021) and Ministerio de Cultura (2021).
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