Lillian Gordis

Photo: Anatole Diethardt

Born in 1992 in Berkeley, California, Lillian Gordis fell in love with the harpsichord at age 9 and never looked back. Five years later, Pierre Hantaï discovered her during a tour to the United States, and, captivated by her touch, he encouraged her to move to France for further studies. Lillian moved to Paris at 16, where she was mentored by Hantaï and Bertrand Cuiller.

Hailed as a “Martha Argerich of the harpsichord” (ResMusica), Lillian regularly performs as a soloist in festivals across Europe and the United States and plays frequently in a duo with Jérôme Hantaï. She has been invited as a guest soloist and director of ensembles such as the Dunedin Consort and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Her most recent Bach recording, released in January 2026 on the label Artalinna, has received multiple awards from Télérama (TTTT), Diapason (5 forks), and Crescendo (10 stars) and wide critical acclaim (Le Figaro Magazine, France Musique, Classique agenda, ConcertClassic, Scherzo...). Her first Bach album (Paraty Productions, 2022) was awarded a Diapason d’Or and received praise in the press worldwide (Gramophone, Scherzo, Crescendo, France Musique, American Record Guide, Fono Forum, Qobuz...). Her first solo recording, Zones (Paraty Productions, 2019) was entirely dedicated to the sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti.

Recent performing highlights include guest-directing Scottish ensemble Dunedin Consort for a tour in Edinburgh and Glasgow, a duo appearance at the Valletta Festival in Malta, an album release, and solo recitals across Europe and the United States. Upcoming recitals include appearances at the Berkeley Festival, the Théâtre de Caen and the Washington Bach Consort Chamber Series. Lillian will also perform world-premiere commissions of two works written for her by Nico Muhly and Cashel Day-Lewis as part of her John Bull complete In nomine cycle in Fall 2026.

Lillian has been Eaton Chair in Baroque Music at CU Boulder since Fall 2024, where she teaches harpsichord, directs the Baroque ensemble and curates the Eaton Historical Performance Series. In the 2023-24 academic year, she served as Visiting Assistant Professor of Harpsichord at Oberlin Conservatory. Lillian holds dual nationality with the United States and France and resides in Paris.

Programs Available to Tour

Bach

Partita no. 6
Selected Preludes & Fugues from the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II

Following her critically acclaimed first Bach album (Diapason d’Or 2022), Gordis continues her solo recording journey into the heart of Johann Sebastian Bach’s keyboard works, with a second album released in 2026 for the French label Artalinna.

The number 3 and its multiples guide this new, intensely personal journey. The Partita No. 6 and the English Suite No. 6—together constituting Bach’s supreme achievements in the genre of the French suite—frame six Preludes and Fugues from Book II of The Well-Tempered Clavier, where J. S. Bach imagined some of the most innovative contrapuntal forms of the 18th century.

The In Nomine Project

In nomines by John Bull, Nico Muhly, & Cashel Day-Lewis

This project grows out of a decade-long fascination with the In nomine, a uniquely English genre of keyboard polyphony that emerged amid the political, religious, and artistic upheavals of the 16th century. Centered on the extraordinary collection of twelve In nomines by John Bull, the program explores how composers responded to the cultural disruptions of the English Reformation through music that is at once dense, retrospective, and radically inventive.

Drawing connections between the entropic qualities of late Renaissance England and the modern practice of historical performance, the project examines themes of loss, memory, continuity, and renewal. Alongside performances of Bull’s landmark works, it includes newly commissioned compositions by Nico Muhly and Cashel Day-Lewis, both composers deeply engaged with the legacy of 16th-century English polyphony. Using the same plainchant source that inspired generations of Renaissance composers, these new works invite contemporary voices into dialogue with historical traditions, exploring how nostalgia and innovation can coexist.

This project is supported by a Bixler Grant from the University of Colorado Boulder, where Lillian Gordis is Eaton Chair of Baroque Music, and will culminate in a world premiere at CU Boulder in 2027 and a recording planned for release in 2028.

Enharmonic

This recital brings together the keyboard polyphony of William Byrd and John Bull with selected preludes and fugues from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier (book II), creating an unconventional dialogue between repertoires separated by more than 150 years. The program is conceived as a single immersive sound world, built around the shared qualities of these composers: extraordinary contrapuntal density, harmonic daring, and a fascination with musical architecture.

At the center of the program is Bull’s remarkable Hexachord Fantasia, whose adventurous enharmonic modulations provide a bridge into Bach’s exploration of distant tonalities. Inspired by these connections, the recital unfolds as a continuous experience without interruption, inviting listeners to encounter the music as a timeless narrative, and to be immersed in the enduring expressive power of polyphony.

Repertoire

John Bull - Melancholy Pavan & Galliard

William Byrd - Fantasia in a

William Byrd - Canon Pavan

William Byrd - Galliard in G

William Tisdall - Mrs. Tregian's Pavan

John Bull - Hexachord Fantasia

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J.S. Bach - 4 Preludes & Fugues, Well-tempered Clavier II

Duo Gordis - Hantaï

Lillian Gordis and Jérôme Hantaï (viol) perform music of J.S. Bach, François Couperin, & Marin Marais

Jérôme Hantaï (viola da gamba) and Lillian Gordis (harpsichord) have been performing as a duo since 2018, inspired as much by the contrast between the vocality of the viol and the cutting crispness of the harpsichord as by the mix of rich and varied timbres of their instruments. Together, they seek a common sound that lies between the singing inertia of the bow and the percussive attack of the keyboard. This ensemble is a chance for these artists to play with new energy and to explore the fresh synergy nourished by their respective identities as soloists. They have toured in France, Switzerland, Italy and the United States.

Touring History

Radio France, New York University, Early Music Princeton, Dunedin Consort, Festival des Abbayes de Lorraine (FR), Festival Bach en Combrailles (FR), Mairie de Paris (FR), Théâtre de Caen (FR), Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, de Bijloke (Gent, BE), Valletta Baroque Festival (Malta), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Oberlin Conservatory, Five Cities Festival, Urbana-Champaign, UC Davis, Zellerbach Playhouse at UC Berkeley, Campbell Recital Hall, Stanford University

Press

Clavecins en majesté | Le Figaro Magazine (originally in French)

“Thus, Lillian Gordis, an American in her thirties close to Pierre Hantaï and Bertrand Cuiller, who, on a Philippe Humeau of devilish beauty and in divine acoustics, delivers a splendid Bach program, highly symbolic (around the multiples of the trinitarian number deployed in Partita, English Suites and Preludes and Fugues) and superbly polyphonic.”

Bruno Guermonprez, Le Figaro Magazine

Gordis se confirma en un Bach magistral | Scherzo (originally in Spanish)

“Gordis confirms her masterful Bach performance [...] She doesn't seek to please, but to awaken. Here Gordis asserts herself powerfully, with a reading that displays skill, intellect, and spatial awareness The clarity of the voices and the balance between freedom and rigor in the polyphony become her hallmark Her vision is organic, constructive, guided by an architectural rather than a rhetorical impulse. A formidable Bach.”

Javier Sarría Pueyo, Scherzo

Générations France Musique, le live | France Musique (originally in French)

“One of the most beautiful Bach recordings of the year…what a shock listening to this recording…Lillian revels in the complexities of the multi-voice writing in a lush interpretation.”

Clément Rochefort, France Musique

TTTT de Télérama : La prouesse de jouer Bach hors des sentiers battus | Télérama (originally in French)

“Indifferent to the dogmas and habits that are the flip side of tradition, she explores the nuances of each score with intelligence and a willingness to take risks that reveal surprising aspects […] Lillian Gordis confirms that she belongs to the lineage of the most audacious harpsichordists. And that we can count on her to surprise us, as much as to move us.”

François Ekchajzer, Télérama

Diapason d'or | BACH (originally in French)

“Between a profession of faith and intimate reflections, this masterful, fulfilling, and highly personal album confirms the promise of a harpsichordist whose discretion is matched only by her temperament.”

Jean-Christophe Pucek, Diapason

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