“A performer of near-superhuman technical prowess” (The New York Times), pianist Marc-André Hamelin is known worldwide for his unrivaled blend of consummate musicianship and brilliant technique in the great works of the established repertoire, as well as for his intrepid exploration of the rarities of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries – in concert and on disc – earning his place as a true icon of the piano.
The summer of 2021 found Mr. Hamelin returning to live performances with the Minnesota Beethoven Festival, Chamber Music Northwest and in recital for San Francisco Performances which included the world premiere of his piano quartet Nowhere Fast with the Alexander String Quartet (an SFP commission), and a return to the Festival International de Launadiere to perform all five Beethoven piano concerti over two nights with the Orchestre Metropolitan and music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin which was followed by recitals at the Schubertiade and in Dubai.
Highlights of the 2021/2022 season include a return to the Atlanta Symphony for the world premiere of Michael Gandolfi’s piano concerto led by Robert Spano, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony and the Austin MN Symphony. Recital appearances will include with the 92nd Street Y, Music Toronto, Performance Santa Fe, Wilton Candlelight Concerts, Edmonton Chamber Music Society, and Parlance Chamber Concerts. He also joins the faculty of the New England Conservatory for a one-year appointment.
European orchestral appearances will include the Dresden Philharmonic with Marek Janowski, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich with David Zinman, Czech Philharmonic, both Brahms concerti with the Bremen Philharmonic, Ryan Wigglesworth Concerto with the Hallé Orchestra, and Brahms 2 with the Valencia Symphony. Recital appearances will include the Wigmore Hall, SWR Sinfoniorchester, Moscow State Philharmonic Society, Herkulesaal – Munich, Florence, Ruhr, Siena, Perugia, Cziffra Festival Budapest, Torino, and Berlin Piano Festival among others.
He reunites with friend and colleague Leif Ove Andsnes for duo recitals at Wigmore Hall, the Vienna Konzerthaus, Bergen Festival, Bozar in Brussels, and Klavierfest Ruhr.
An exclusive recording artist for Hyperion Records, his discography includes more than 60 albums, with notable recordings of a broad range of repertoire. In 2020, Hyperion released two acclaimed albums by Mr. Hamelin – one a solo disc of Liszt and Thalberg opera transcriptions, and the other piano sonatas of composer/pianist Samuil Feinberg with his next disc to be released is a two-disc set of CPE Bach Sonatas & Rondos in January 2022.
Mr. Hamelin has composed music throughout his career, with nearly 30 compositions to his name. The majority of those works – including the Études and Toccata on L’Homme armé, commissioned by the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition – are published by Edition Peters. His other most recent work, Suite à l’ancienne (Suite in the old style), was premiered in February 2021 by pianist Rachel Naomi Kudo with funding from her Gilmore Young Artist Award.
Mr. Hamelin makes his home in the Boston area with his wife, Cathy Fuller, a producer and host at Classical WCRB. Born in Montreal, he is the recipient of a lifetime achievement award from the German Record Critics’ Association and has received seven Juno Awards and eleven GRAMMY nominations, the 2018 Jean Gimbel Lane Prize in Piano Performance awarded by Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music and in December 2020 was awarded the Paul de Hueck and Norman Walford Career Achievement Award for Keyboard Artistry from the Ontario Arts Foundation. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada, a Chevalier de l’Ordre du Québec, and a member of the Royal Society of Canada.
