About continued



Dakota Pianist is the stage name of international pianist , Eugene Geinger, native of North Dakota, now resident in Wellington, New Zealand, where he is affiliated with the Wieck Piano Academy of Newlands ( Beginners age 2.75 to 4.25 may contact the Academy at this website contact page to book a FREE evaluation of musical aptitude). He is the only classical pianist from the Dakotas to have achieved an international reputation as a performer and master teacher. The essence of the playing of Dakota Pianist has been aptly summarised by two Australian music critics following some of his earliest performances in Australia. Dr. William Lovelock declared that he “displayed splendid musical virtuosity of a kind one does not hear too frequently” while John Villaume commented that “the spur of virtuosity lends spirit to Mr Gienger’s playing, though it contains more than mere fireworks”.

During an extensive concert tour of the USA, an Ohio critic declared him "a five-star concert pianist...incredibly moving for the audience".  He has recently been re-awarded a Touring Artist's Grant from the South Dakota Arts Council which will enable him to be heard in concerts across South Dakota.  Since being named a Touring Artist with the SDAC, he has given acclaimed concerts, lectures and master classes across a wide area of South Dakota, including Rapid City, Hot Springs, Custer, Marvin, Chamberlain, Wessington Springs, Aberdeen, Pierre, Huron, Spearfish and Sioux Falls, including presenting Beethoven's Emperor Concerto with the Black Hills Symphony Orchestra and performing at the Governor's Awards in the Arts banquet.  He joined the staff of the International Music Camp during the summer of 2011, on the border of North Dakota and Canada, of which camp he is an alumunus.  He has been re-engaged by the International Music Camp for the summer of 2012, as well as by the Black Hills Symphony for a performance of Brahms' Piano Concerto No.2 in 2013, and also in the 2012-2013 season he will present the world premiere performances of "Eurydice and Orpheus" by Northern State University composer Dr. William Wieland, dedicated to Eugene Gienger.  The South Dakota Arts Council has awarded Mr. Gienger an Artist Fellowship to further his recording activities for 2012-2013.  He has been invited to perform in Oregon and Australia in 2013.  Following his performance of Beethoven's Emperor Concerto with the Black Hills Symphony on a Yamaha concert grand (on loan from Yamaha Artists' Services in New York City), a member of the audience purchased the piano to keep it in the local community, and it is now available for performances throughout the five-state region as the Regional Concert Grand Piano.  Mr. Gienger was invited to perform the official dedicatory recital on this piano in September 2011 at the Elk's Club in Rapid City, SD.  

Since accepting a piano position in Australia in 1978, Dakota Pianist has lectured in piano at both The University of Queensland (with tenure), and later in 1997 and following years at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University in Brisbane.  He has found greatest renown as a teacher, however, in working with gifted young children in an independent practice in Toowoomba, Queensland, where he developed a unique method of teaching piano technique and ear-training to the very young.  His teaching activities have produced first prize-winners  of many local, state, national and international piano competitions, as well a producing important piano teachers in Australia, the United States, England, Taiwan and Germany.  Mr Gienger is the author of The Mechanics of Piano Technique (1980), which he uses in his work with students.

Highlights of his highly acclaimed piano concerts include performances and lectures on all 32 Piano Sonatas of Beethoven, many first performances and recordings for the Australian Broadcasting Commission (and other radio and television stations) of piano works written for him by prominent Australian composers Colin Brumby, James Penberthy, Philip Bracanin, Andrew Schultz and Philip Mayers, performances with chamber groups including The Petra Quartet, The Mayne String Trio, The Paradise Quartet, The Chamber Strings of Toowoomba, Toowoomba Choral Society,and Haydn Society of Queensland, performances with orchestras: the Minnesota Orchestra, the Bismarck/Mandan Symphony Orchestra, the Queensland University Musical Society, and the Queensland University Symphony Orchestra, the Black Hills Symphony Orchestra, the Aberdeen University and Community Symphony, and Huron Symphony, performances with prominent instrumentalists and singers, and performances at the International Piano Competitions of Sydney and Moscow (Tchaikowsky Competition).  Dakota Pianist has also re-invented the salon recital on the Australian and USA musical scenes, performing scores of solo recitals in this format, before smaller audiences in the more intimate atmosphere of the home, and achieving renown for the eloquent spoken program notes which have become a regular feature of these home recitals. 

His large repertoire spans all styles and periods and includes several dozen piano concerti.  He has performed widely in the USA and Australia, and also in Canada and Russia.  Dakota Pianist  holds honors degrees in piano performance from the University of Minnesota and Indiana University, where he was named personal teaching assistant to Menahem Pressler of the world-renowned Beaux-Arts Trio.  His recordings include“Virtuoso Praise” on the Salt of the Earth label, “Home Recital I,”  “Bach to Penberthy,” and “A Bit of Bach and Lots of Liszt” (with “Even More Liszt”), and “My Favorite Liszt—Dakota Pianist” in honor of the International Year of Franz Liszt 2011, the 200th anniversary of his birth."

Mr. Gienger has numerous other interests, being a certified Health Coach, trained at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition in New York City, and accredited by the Americasn Association of Drugless Practitioners.  He is also trained in Biblical theology, having studied at the Baptist Theological College of Queensland and the University of Queensland, both in Brisbane, Australia. He currently resides in Wellington, New Zealand where he is available to help motivated young pianists to develop their musical talent through the Wieck Piano Academy of Newlands.