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About
Hailed by the New York Times as “one of the essential artists of his generation” (New York Times), Igor Levit is the 2018 Gilmore Artist and Royal Philharmonic Society’s “Instrumentalist of the Year” 2018. He is the Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Academy and of the Festival “Standpunkte” of the Heidelberg Spring Festival and has been appointed a professorship at his Alma Mater the University of Music, Drama and Media in Hanover in spring 2019.
In September 2019 Sony Classical releases Igor Levit’s highly anticipated first recording of all Beethoven Sonatas. The season marks the start of three Beethoven sonata cycles at the Lucerne Festival, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and Stockholm’s Konserthuset. The end of the season will see Igor Levit on tour in the United States with an all-Beethoven sonata program – amongst others at New York’s Carnegie Hall, Princeton, Washington, San Francisco and Chicago.
Igor Levit is Barbican Centre’s “Featured Artist” of the 2019/20 season. The residency comprises a solo recital, two duo recitals with pianists Markus Becker and Markus Hinterhäuser as well as a concerto performance with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks under the baton of Mariss Jansons, with whom he Igor Levit will also tour in Spain in January 2020. Further orchestral engagements will see him on tour in Europe with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra conducted by Manfred Honeck and returns amongst others to the Cleveland Orchestra, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Highlights of past seasons included debuts with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orkest as well as international tours with the Tonhalleorchester Zürich and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
An exclusive recording artist for Sony Classical, Igor Levit’s debut disc of the five last Beethoven Sonatas won the BBC Music Magazine Newcomer of the Year 2014 Award and the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist Award 2014. In October 2015, Sony Classical released Igor Levit’s third solo album in cooperation with the Festival Heidelberger Frühling featuring Bach’s Goldberg Variations, Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations and Rzewski’s The People United Will Never Be Defeated!, which has been awarded the “Recording of the Year” and “Instrumental Award” at the 2016 Gramophone Classical Music Awards.
Born in Nizhni Nowgorod in 1987, Igor Levit moved to Germany with his family at age eight. He completed his piano studies at Hannover Academy of Music, Theatre and Media in 2009 with the highest academic and performance scores in the history of the institute. Igor Levit has studied under the tutelage of Karl-Heinz Kämmerling, Matti Raekallio, Bernd Goetze, Lajos Rovatkay and Hans Leygraf. As the youngest participant in 2005 Arthur Rubinstein Competition in Tel Aviv, Igor Levit won the Silver Prize, as well as the Prize for Best Performer of Chamber Music, the Audience Favorite Prize and the Prize for Best Performer of Contemporary Music.
In Berlin, where he makes his home, Igor Levit is playing on a Steinway D Grand Piano kindly given to him by the Trustees of Independent Opera at Sadler’s Wells.