CONCERT TESTIMONIALS:

“Oni Buchanan is a species unto herself. Her playing is informed by a persuasively lyrical touch in the service of great poise and charm. No less affable than intelligent, her combination of brains, devotion, and personality produces a highly principled and attractive approach to art and to music.”

--Russell Sherman, Distinguished Artist in Residence,
New England Conservatory

“Oni Buchanan is a lovely person and a great artist. The audience responded with the warmest applauses, particularly in regards to the Villa-Lobos. Her interpretation of Rudepoêma was completely full of passion; I've never heard someone play that piece bringing this variety of sound and character as she did. Absolute success!”

--Riva Fineberg, Diretora Cultural ,
Instituto Brasileiro de Administração Municipal (IBAM)
Rio de Janeiro, BRAZIL

“Oni Buchanan gave a very fine performance of a carefully crafted program exploring music associated with nighttime, ranging from Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata of 1801 to a piece composed in 2000 by Kelly-Marie Murphy. To enhance the audience’s experience, she provided extraordinarily informative program notes. She is an excellent young musician whose poetic sensibilities come through in her playing and her programming. She was deservedly greeted at the end of the concert with enthusiastic applause and bravos. This fine young artist is exactly the kind of musician the Myra Hess series is designed to showcase, and she would be an asset to any recital series.”

--Ann Murray, Executive Director, International Music Foundation
Chicago, IL

“Oni Buchanan's residency included work in both poetry and music, two arts in which she excels. A thoughtful and intelligent person, Oni plays with great interpretive and technical facility. Her program for our concert series concentrated on the musical interpretation of some carefully selected poetry. Her introductions were cogent and added enormously to the enjoyment of the music. Our audience responded in a most positive way and immediately requested her return.”

--Jane Ambrose, Director, UVM Lane Series
Burlington, VT


“Oni’s performance overall was marked by a true virtuosity, one that is born from the music itself. To say that Oni is a colorist is almost to miss the point; rather she understands and conveys the essence of the music. Oni Buchanan is also a poet, and we might say simply that, in her playing, she approaches the piano as a poet might. But what this really means is that Oni’s playing goes beyond the piano, and beyond artistry, to reach the heart of the matter, to art itself.”

--Dr. Richard Greene, Chairman of the Music Department,
Georgia College & State University

“Oni Buchanan was terrific. We scheduled Oni’s concert late on a weekday afternoon, after a full day of other performances, events, and workshops, not knowing what the turnout would be. We needn’t have worried—she packed our largest auditorium and gave a stunning concert that is still being talked about. Several hundred students, faculty and visitors turned out for what many would recall as the highlight of an extraordinary week that brought writers from around the country and featured film and other musical performances. Oni performed an amazing thematically interesting and technically challenging concert that left the audience breathless, then cheering. Next day, she conducted a poetry workshop. We had planned for 30-40 participants but wound up with more than a hundred. Word had surely spread about her. Her workshop was lively and inspiring. Many commented that it offered the most participatory experience of any of the many workshops and was one of the most dynamic presentations of Writers Week. Throughout, Oni conducted herself with true professionalism in all respects. She was gracious, conscientious, mindful of her audience, respectful of her students, and generous to all. In short, she was exactly the sort of writer and performer we wanted to offer as an exemplar to our community of writers.”

--Philip Gerard, Chair, Department of Creative Writing
University of North Carolina Wilmington

“Oni Buchanan's ravishing 'Poetry in Piano' presentation was a highlight of the Whittier Writers' Festival, a fascinating blend of virtuoso performance and incisive discussion of the structural principles that carry over from music to poetry and from poetry to music. I was pleased as well by her generosity of spirit as shown in the care she took with student after student in individual meetings with poetry writing students and in her visit to our writing workshop. She is a truly original act, a fine poet, and a wonderful musician.”

--Dr. Tony Barnstone, Professor of English and Founder of Whittier Writers' Festival, Whittier College, Whittier, CA

“Ms. Buchanan’s master-class/workshop for music and poetry students on Friday and her public 'Moonlight Recital' concert on Saturday evening were both transcendent. Oni Buchanan is one of the most gifted young pianists I’ve heard in years. She has the talent to become a major emerging concert artist. In my forty years of studying artists and their art, rarely have I experienced a musician as articulate as Oni in her ability to describe in detail her creative process. Ms. Buchanan possesses a keen creative imagination and has the artistry to bring her musical vision to light in the concert hall. Her playing is masterful and inspiring. She plays with power, emotion, and fluidity. Her rendering of both Romantic and contemporary styles was melodious, poignant, insightful, and spiritually-charged, and brought a rapt, appreciative audience to its feet in grand admiration of her talents. The entire evening was simply luminous!”

--Dr. Rick J. Plummer, Director,
West Shore Community College Performing Arts Series, Scottville, MI


“Witty, insightful, fluent playing by a remarkably gifted and mature young talent. Her technical prowess allowed her the freedom to explore the music with obvious and venturesome delight, and with such ease and expressiveness that the disparate images each composer limned in sound emerged entirely vivid and individual.”

--Paula Barthel, Director of LiveARTS “Concerts in the Meetinghouse”,
Franklin, MA

“Buchanan is a true artist, full of creativity and unique interpretations. Her technique is meticulous, dazzling and powerful, and her spirit is generous and alive. All this comes through in her music.”

--Geoffrey Peters, Founder and Current Director of University Hall Concert Series,
Harvard University



MASTER CLASS AND OUTREACH TESTIMONIALS:

“Learning and laughter are not always deemed compatible in our profession, but Oni Buchanan’s master class was an object lesson in how they can reinforce and enhance one another. Her comments were incisive without being the least bit corrosive, and my students benefited greatly from her teaching. Both her performance and the master class were superb! We certainly look forward to having her back in the future and wish her every opportunity to share her artistry and pedagogical skills in the meantime.”

--Dr. Gregory Pepetone, Director of Keyboard Activities
Georgia College & State University


“Oni Buchanan presented excerpts from her program on Poetry and the Piano for our students at Caldwell College. The program itself was very intriguing and fit perfectly with our Music and the Arts course. Oni Buchanan’s preparation was very apparent and the program and notes she sent ahead were most helpful as I was able to discuss some of the works in class. Her comments and personal insight into the works were fascinating and very engaging, and the relaxed, informal way she spoke really connected with our students. Ms. Buchanan’s playing was so sensitive and expressive, especially after her wonderful descriptions, that it led the students through the works and helped them to follow the musical ideas quite easily. These students are not accustomed to classical concerts and they were listening with rapt attention. Ms. Buchanan’s “map” to Rudepoêma was very interesting, and guided us through a work that might otherwise have been more challenging to follow. The range of musical styles, from Romantic to Impressionist to Twentieth Century, was quite accessible with just enough contrast, and the variety of the relationships to poetry was truly fascinating. It was a pleasure to work with Oni Buchanan, and a joy to meet her and hear her perform. Her passion for the music and the instrument she plays is obvious and contagious.”

--Dr. Laura Greenwald, Music Department Chair and Concert Series Director,
Caldwell College, Caldwell, NJ


“What a beautiful combination of poetry, music and personality! Oni Buchanan was truly outstanding in her outreach program for our local fourth, fifth and sixth graders. The connections that she made between the poetry she chose and the music that expressed these poetic themes were extremely well done. I honestly believe that the students - and teachers! - came away from this program with a new found respect for poetry and music, and the strong bond that exists between the two. Thank you, Oni!”

--David Palmer, Broadoaks School Outreach Coordinator,
Whittier, CA


“Oni Buchanan shared not only the stories and images behind the pieces but also gave glimpses of her rationale for assembling them in one program, bringing the audience closer to her own preparatory process. By the end of the performance, the audience not only appeared amazed at her considerable passion and technical facility, but they also seemed appreciative of her efforts to relate relatively complex musical concepts in user-friendly terms.”

--Robert Riker, Music Department Chair, Moravian Academy Upper School
Bethlehem, PA