• Wael Farouk piano

    Wael Farouk, piano

    Praised as a "formidable and magnificent pianist" by the New York Concert Review, Egyptian-American pianist Wael Farouk has had an extensive performing career. He commands a vast repertoire of more than 70 concertos and 60 solo programs, spanning from Scarlatti to Bolcom and including the complete piano works of J.S. Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, and Rachmaninoff. Dr. Farouk has performed on five continents in such venues as the White Hall in St. Petersburg, Schumann’s house in Leipzig, Chicago Symphony Center, and Carnegie Hall in New York, where his solo debut performance in 2013 was described as "absolutely masterful."

    Between 2014 and 2018, Dr. Farouk performed 30 different recital programs featuring the complete solo piano works of Rachmaninoff and Brahms, as well as the complete piano chamber music of Brahms. Other programs included works by Chopin, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Ravel, Bolcom, Busoni, Godowsky, the complete Transcendental Etudes by Liszt, Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata, and Bach's Art of the Fugue. Dr. Farouk also performed during these four years the complete piano concertos of Rachmaninoff, Brahms, and Beethoven (including all five of Beethoven's concertos in a single concert). In 2017 he also gave the African premiere of the monumental 75-minute Busoni piano concerto with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra and performed concertos by Liszt, Prokofiev, and Chopin with orchestras in the United States.

    The five-recital series featuring the complete solo works of Rachmaninoff was a feat the Chicago Tribune hailed as "historical" in a front-page feature. The series made additional headlines on the front pages of the New Jersey Star-Ledger and the Clavier Companion.

    Dr. Farouk directs the piano studies at Carthage College and the Carthage Arts Academy in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He is also on the faculty of the Chicago College of the Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. He frequently judges competitions and delivers masterclasses.Dr. Farouk is also on the artist faculty roster at the Puigcerdà Music Festival.

    As a teacher, Dr. Farouk believes in cultivating each student's own artistic voice while empowering them with a solid technical foundation. Within a short time, his students routinely demonstrate tremendous artistic and technical growth. Students work with Dr. Farouk on learning a large repertoire, from early Baroque to Contemporary composers. His students have won local, national, and international competitions and prizes and have performed live on public radio.