Since his triumph as winner of the 1970 Chopin International Piano Competition, American pianist Garrick Ohlsson is widely regarded as one of the most talented virtuoso pianists performing today.
Ohlsson, A student of the late Claudio Arrau, Ohlsson has long been known as one of the world’s leading exponents of the music of Chopin. That is only one dimension of an enormous repertoire, ranging from Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert to 20th century masters. Mr Ohlsson numbers some 70 piano concertos in his repertoire.
When he initiated his international series of Chopin cycles in Paris in 1997, Le Monde wrote: His tone is delicate, his legato enchanting, and his phrases meticulously formed as those of a harpsichordist playing Couperin. Such elegance, such reluctance to dazzle right up until the most hair-raising of the etudes (Op. 10)-- played effortlessly and with an infinite variety of color and nuance. . .
Mr Ohlsson has performed with many of the world's major orchestras, including the Dresden Staatskapelle, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, NDR-Sinfonie Orchester Hamburg, Rundfunk- Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, the London Symphony and London Philharmonic Orchestras, BBC Symphony, Hallé Orchestra, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich, Helsinki Philharmonic, Hague Residentie Orkest, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Barcelona Symphony, Prague Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Rome's Santa Cecilia Orchestra, and the RAI Orchestras of Milan and Turin.
The pianist has appeared with prominent orchestras in North America, most notably the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, National Symphony (Washington, D.C.), and the symphony orchestras of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Saint Louis, Montreal, and Toronto.
Mr Ohlsson has collaborated with many of the leading conductors of our time, including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Herbert Blomstedt, Pierre Boulez, James Conlon, Andrew Davis, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Christoph Eschenbach, Daniele Gatti, Valery Gergiev, Marek Janowski, Neeme Jarvi, James Levine, Sir Neville Marriner, Kurt Masur, Seiji Ozawa, Simon Rattle, David Robertson, Mstislav Rostropovich, Kurt Sanderling, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Leonard Slatkin, Yuri Temirkanov, Michael Tilson Thomas, Hans Vonk and David Zinman.
Highlights of Mr Ohlsson’s 2003-04 season were three appearances at New York’s Avery Fisher Hall, one with the New York Philharmonic under David Robertson (Copland Piano Concerto), a second guest soloist performance with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Daniele Gatti (Brahms Second Piano Concerto), and as solo recitalist in a program of works by Handel, Haydn, Beethoven, and Scriabin. He also joins Maestro Gatti and the RPO on a tour of the U.S. In addition he is guest soloist with the London Philharmonic, NDR Sinfonieorchester, Orchestre National de France, Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich, Czech Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony, among others.
Garrick Ohlsson was born in 1948 in White Plains, New York, where he began his piano studies at the age of eight. He attended the Westchester Conservatory of Music and at 13 entered the Juilliard School. His musical development was influenced by such distinguished teachers as Claudio Arrau, Olga Barabini, Tom Lishman, Sascha Gorodnitzki, Rosina Lhévinne, and Irma Wolpe. Although he won first prizes at the 1966 Busoni Competition in Italy and 1968 Montreal Piano Competition, it was the Chopin Competition in Warsaw, where he won the Gold Medal in 1970, that brought him worldwide recognition. He was awarded the Avery Fisher Prize in 1994 and received the 1998 University Musical Society Distinguished Artist Award in Ann Arbor.
Mr. Ohlsson can be heard on the Arabesque, RCA Victor Red Seal, Angel, Bridge, BMG, Delos, Hänssler, Nonesuch, Telarc, and Virgin Classics labels. He has recorded the complete solo works of Chopin for Arabesque.
