Martin Helmchen

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, Tabea Zimmermann, Juliane Banse, Julia Fischer, Sabine Meyer and Lars Vogt.

In 2010/11 season Helmchen will make his debut with the Orchestre de Paris under the baton of Christoph von Dohnanyi and with the Radiophilharmonie Hannover under Orozco-Estrada. He also plans a tour through Germany with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields under Sir Neville Marriner and he will return to the NHK Symphony Orchestra as well as to the Musikkollegium Winterthur.

This season also sees him performing solo recitals in Vancouver, Antwerpen, Florenz, Marseille, London and Brüssel.