Paul Lewis FGS

Biography

Paul Lewis studied at Chethams and the Guildhall, and received regular coaching from Alfred Brendel. He is now one of the most sought after and popular artists of his generation, appearing at the world’s major musical venues and festivals. His recent Schubert Sonata Series won him the 2003 South Bank Show Classical Music Award and the 2003 RPS Instrumentalist of the Year Award, and his two Schubert Sonata discs and his Liszt Sonata recordings for Harmonia Mundi have won many international awards including 2 successive Edison awards in Holland in 2004 & 2005. More recently he was awarded the 25th Premio Internazionale Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena. He is now half way through his complete Beethoven sonata cycle which he is performing at London’s Wigmore Hall and other venues throughout the UK, Europe and the US until the end of 2007.

Recent highlights include recitals all over Europe and the US with recent debuts in San Francisco, Budapest, Venice, Sienna, Vienna, Washington and Tokyo, and his concerto debut at the Salzburg Festival. Last season’s engagements included his debut with the London Symphony Orchestra under Bernard Haitink, the Mozart Concerto for Two Pianos with Till Fellner at the 2006 BBC Proms, and a nationwide recital tour of Australia for Musica Viva. As a much sought-after chamber musician, he has performed with the likes of Yo-Yo Ma, Michael Collins, Ernst Kovacic, Adrian Brendel, Steven Osborne and the Leopold String Trio.

The first CD of his complete series of Beethoven Sonatas was released in September 2005, and the second volume, a triple CD box set, in October 2006.  Paul Lewis has also recorded both Mozart Piano Quartets and Schubert’s ‘Trout’ Quintet with the Leopold String Trio for Hyperion Records.