Martin Helmchen
Piano
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 performances with major orchestras including the Vienna Philharmonic, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonieorchester 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, released in autumn 2008, won an ECHO Award in 2009.
After studies at Berlin’s Hanns Eisler Conservatoire with Galina Iwanzowa, Martin Helmchen continues his studies with Arie Vardie at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover (since 2001) and with William Grant Naboré from the „Klavierakademie Comer See“. An early impact on 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 under 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 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 National 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, Juliane Banse, Julia Fischer and Sabine Meyer.
In 2009/10 season Helmchen will make his Berlin Philharmonic debut under the baton of Herbert Blomstedt with whom he also performs with the Deutsche Symphonie Berlin. He is soloist with the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra under Yakov Kreizburg also continuing a Beethoven piano cycle under his baton with the Netherlands Philharmonic. He gives his debut with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Andris Nelsons and return to the Orchestre National de France. With the Flanders Philharmonic and Philippe Herreweghe Helmchen will record the Mendelssohn piano concerti. This season also sees him performing solo recitals in Berlin, Hamburg and Graz, in duos with cellists Heinrich Schiff (Vienna, Berlin and Brussels) and Marie-Elizabeth Hecker (Paris, Lucerne, Madrid, Barcelona), with Julia Fischer and in lieder recitals with soprano Juliana Banse in Antwerp and Berlin.
Season 2009/2010
Shostakovich Piano Concertos, LPO, Vladimir Jurowski on YouTube
