Ursula Oppens is one of the very first artists to program traditional and contemporary works in equal measure. An enduring commitment to integrating new music into regular concert life has led Ms. Oppens to commission and premiere countless compositions. In addition to her long close relationship with Tobias Picker, she has premiered works by such leading composers as Luciano Berio, William Bolcom, Elliott Carter, John Harbison, Julius Hemphill, Tania Leon, Harold Meltzer, György Ligeti, Witold Lutoslawski, Conlon Nancarrow, Frederic Rzewski, Joan Tower, Amy Williams, Christian Wolff, Amnon Wolman, and Charles Wuorinen.

Ms. Oppens has performed with virtually all of the world’s major orchestras. She has been heard with the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the American Composers Orchestra, and the orchestras of Chicago, Cleveland, San Francisco, and Milwaukee. Abroad, she has appeared with such orchestras as the Berlin Symphony, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Deutsches Symphonie, the Scottish BBC and the London Philharmonic Orchestras. She has also performed as the piano soloist for the Mark Morris Company’s “Mozart Dances”. Ms. Oppens is an avid chamber musician and has performed with the Arditti, Juilliard, Pacifica, and Rosetti quartets, among others. She is a prolific recording artist, and her recordings of such landmark works as Frederic Rzewski’s “The People United Will Never Be Defeated” and Elliott Carter’s “Night Fantasies” are phonographic classics.

In 2008, Ms. Oppens took up her new post as Distinguished Professor of Music at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City. From 1994 through the end of the 2007–08 academic year she served as John Evans Distinguished Professor of Music at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.