Marc-André Hamelin

Canadian pianist and composer Marc-André Hamelin was born in Montreal, Quebec, on September 5, 1961. He began learning to play the piano with his father at the age of five, discovering little-played composers from the outset. He went on to study at the Vincent d'Indy Conservatory with Yvonne Hubert, and went on to perfect his skills at Temple University in Philadelphia (USA), where he obtained a master's degree in 1985 before settling there. Winner of first prize in the Carnegie Hall Competition for American Music in New York that same year, Marc-André Hamelin has since pursued an international solo career, recording extensively for the Hyperion label. In addition to his virtuosity, which enables him to tackle difficult scores, the pianist's curiosity for rare, classical, romantic, modern and contemporary works is reflected in his eclecticism across eras and styles. His fingers have thus produced collections devoted to Bolcom, Sorabji, Eckhardt-Gramatté, Wright, Henselt, Grainger, Roslavets, Medtner, Rzewski, Catoire, Kapoustine or Alkan, between discs dedicated to composers such as Liszt, Villa-Lobos, Schumann, Szymanowski, Albéniz, Brahms, Haydn, Chopin, Debussy, Mozart, Stravinsky or Schubert. A lover of transcriptions, he has been exploring the genre since his first album Godowsky: Original Works and Transcriptions (1988). His recital at London's Wigmore Hall was published for the first time on the Hyperion label in 1994, followed by Scriabin's complete The Complete Sonatas (1996) and the albums The Composer-Pianists (1998), Kaleidoscope (2001) and In a State of Jazz (2008). In 2010, Marc-André Hamelin unveils his own compositions in the collection of his 12 Études. He collaborates with conductors Martyn Brabbins, Mark Elder, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Andrew Litton and Ilan Volkov, then with the Takács Quartet in chamber music by Shostakovich, Ornstein, Franck, Debussy and Dohnányi (2015-2019) and Joshua Bell, Pamela Frank, Nobuko Imai and Steven Isserlis in Franck's Piano Quintet (2020). After the minimalist Feldman: For Bunita Marcus (2017) and a foray into the Baroque music of C. P. E. Bach in Sonatas & Rondos (2022), comes the duo Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring & Other Works for 2 Pianos with Leif Ove Andsnes (2023). The following collection, Fauré: Nocturnes & Barcarolles, reached No. 7 in the UK classical music charts in 2023. The following year saw the release of three varied programs: New Piano Works, Messiaen: Turangalîla-Symphony with Gustavo Gimeno, Nathalie Forget and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Beethoven: Piano Sonatas, Op. 2/3 & 106. After reuniting with the Takács Quartet for Dvorák & Price: Piano Quintets, he performs pieces by Frank Zappa, John Cage, Salvatore Martirano, John Oswald, Stefan Wolpe and Yehudi Wyner in Found Objects / Sound Objects (2025).

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