Marc-André Hamelin
Piano
He is regarded as one of the most brilliant pianists of the present day, as someone who knows how to master even the most intricate passages with “cool and with consummate musicality” and “sheer surreal technique” ([The New York Times]): Marc-André Hamelin. This master of virtuosity is a regular guest of the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Born in Montreal in 1961, the French-Canadian began playing the piano at the age of five. By the age of 13, he had already mastered Charles Ives’s [Concord Sonata], which, with its multiple layers of piano notation, often in three systems, reaches a level of complexity that brings performers to the edge of despair. When Marc-André Hamelin won the Carnegie Hall American Music Competition in New York in 1985, he exclusively played pieces outside the usual repertoire: rarities that still feature in his programmes today. The pianist, who has also enjoyed success as a composer and arranger (his [Pavane variée] was written as a set piece for the 2014 ARD Music Competition), regularly gives guest performances at major festivals, in internationally renowned concert halls and works as a concert soloist with the world’s best orchestras. Hamelin has received many awards for his impressive discography. He is a member of the Royal Society of Canada and has been made an Officer of the Order of Canada and a Knight of the City of Quebec.
