Biography

Born in Berlin in 1982, pianist Martin Helmchen studied at Berlin’s Hanns Eisler Conservatory with Galina Iwanzowa and later with Arie Vardie at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hanover, as well as with William Grant Naboré. His international career was launched when he won the 2001 Clara Haskil International Piano Competition at the age of nineteen. Other distinctions include a fellowship from the Borletti-Buitoni Trust in 2005, the Credit Suisse Young Artist Award in 2006, and participation in the BBC New Generation Artist program from 2005 to 2007. He made his US orchestral debut in 2011 playing the Schumann Piano Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood. These current performances mark his San Francisco Symphony debut.

Following recent debuts with the Saint Louis, Houston, and Oregon symphonies, in the 2013-14 season Mr. Helmchen will make debuts with the Dallas Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom, as well as his Kennedy Center recital debut in May 2014. Upcoming engagements worldwide include the City of Birmingham Symphony, Gürzenich Orchestera in Cologne, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Philharmonia Orchestra, Prague Symphony, Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Svetlanov Symphony in Moscow, and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra.

Mr. Helmchen’s recent recital engagements include performances at the Frick Collection in New York, Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall (with cellist Marie-Elisabeth Hecker), the Coast Recital Society, San Francisco Performances, ArtSpring, Wigmore Hall, and the Alte Oper in Frankfurt. He also appears regularly at major German festivals, as well as the Schubertiade, Lockenhaus, and Marlboro festivals.

An exclusive PentaTone recording artist, Mr. Helmchen’s debut disc of Mozart concertos with the Netherlands Chamber Philharmonic was released in 2007. His first solo CD, a recording of works of Schubert, won an ECHO Klassik award in 2009. Other discs for PentaTone include piano concertos of Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Dvořák, and Schubert’s complete works for violin and piano with Julia Fischer. A second disc of Mozart piano concertos with the Netherlands Chamber Philharmonic will be released later this year. For more information, visit martin-helmchen.com.

(October 2013)