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Martin Helmchen
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30/01/2010
With his highly virtuosic yet unpretentious style, pianist Martin Helmchen is increasingly recognised on the international music scene.
A matured musician’s personality is at work here; he knows how to connect seriousness and wistfulness with success […]. Neue Zürcher Zeitung
With his highly virtuosic yet unpretentious style, pianist Martin Helmchen is increasingly recognised on the international music scene. Born in Berlin in 1982, he took his first piano lessons aged six. Receiving the “Echo Klassik” and the “Credit Suisse Young Artists Award” he has achieved two of the most significant prizes in the music scene as well as concert experiences with major orchestras including the Vienna Philharmonic, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Deutsche Symphonie Orchester, Berlin and the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Japan. Helmchen’s debut disc of Mozart concerti with the Netherlands Chamber Philharmonic was released in September 2007 through his exclusive contract with PentaTone. His first solo recording of Schubert works was released in autumn 2008.
After studies at Berlin’s Hanns Eisler Conservatoire with Galina Iwanzowa, Martin Helmchen has been studying with Arie Vardie at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover since 2001. An early impulse in his young career was winning the "2001 Clara Haskil Competition”. He was a Fellow of the Borletti-Buitoni-Trust in 2005 and the “Credit Suisse Young Artist Award” in 2006 culminated with his debut with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev at the Lucerne Festival. Between 2005 and 2007 Martin Helmchen was a soloist on the “BBC New Generation Artist Scheme” with numerous concerts and studio productions in the UK both in solo and with all the BBC symphony orchestras.
Martin Helmchen has performed with the orchestras of RSO Stuttgart, Bamberg Symphony, RSB Berlin, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, London Philharmonic Orchestra and BBC Symphony Orchestra; and worked with conductors such as Marc Albrecht, Lawrence Foster, Philippe Herreweghe, Yakov Kreizburg, Marek Janowski, Vladimir Jurowski, Christoph Poppen, Kurt Masur and Bruno Weil. Festival engagements regularly include all the major German festivals, Schubertiade, Lockenhaus and the Marlboro Festival in Vermont/USA.
Martin Helmchen’s passion for chamber music was largely ignited in early collaborations with the late cellist Boris Pergamenschikow. He now performs regularly with Heinrich Schiff and Marie-Elisabeth Hecker; further partners are Gidon Kremer, Christian Tetzlaff, Sharon Kam, Tabea Zimmermann, Juliane Banse, Julia Fischer, Sabine Meyer and Lars Vogt.
In the 2008/09 season, Martin Helmchen was the Artist in Residence in his hometown at the Konzerthaus Berlin. He make his debut with Vienna Symphony, Hallé Orchestra Manchester, Orchestre Philhamonique de Monte-Carlo, and Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich and will be soloist on an extensive European tour with the Royal Flanders Philharmonic under the direction of Philippe Herreweghe. Forthcoming recitals include performances in Paris, the Lucerne Piano Festival, Trieste, Zurich, Berlin and his recital debut on London’s International Piano Series at the South Bank Centre.
Book for Martin Helmchen performing with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra as part of Leeds International Concert Season
