Jan Lisiecki

Jan Lisiecki (pronounced [ˈjɑːn ˌlɪ'ʃɜtskɪ]; born March 23, 1995) is a Polish-Canadian classical pianist. Lisiecki performs over a hundred concerts annually[1] and has worked closely with the world's leading orchestras and conductors,[2] his career at the top of the international concert scene spanning over a decade.[3] He has been a recording artist with Deutsche Grammophon since the age of fifteen.[4][5]

Jan Lisiecki
Lisiecki in 2019
Background information
Birth nameJan Milosz Lisiecki
Born (1995-03-23) March 23, 1995
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
GenresClassical
Occupation(s)Pianist
Years active2004–present
LabelsDeutsche Grammophon/Universal Classics
Websitewww.janlisiecki.com

Early life and education

Lisiecki was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and began piano lessons at the age of five, making his orchestral debut at the age of nine.[6] At thirteen, Lisiecki was invited to the 2008 edition of the "Chopin and his Europe" festival in Warsaw, Poland to perform Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 21 with Sinfonia Varsovia and Howard Shelley. Instantly hailed as the sensation of the festival, he returned in 2009 to perform Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 11 in the same constellation.[7]

He was brought to international attention the following year when the Fryderyk Chopin Institute released the two performances, marking Lisiecki's album debut.[8] The recording was awarded the Diapason d’Or Découverte[9] and met with enthusiastic international reviews, with BBC Music Magazine praising the "sensitively distilled" insights of his Chopin interpretations, and "mature musicality" of his playing, and noting that "even in a crowded CD catalogue, this refreshingly unhyped debut release is one to celebrate".[10] Following the Chopin release, Deutsche Grammophon signed an exclusive contract with Jan Lisiecki that same year, when he was 15 years old.[11][12]

Jan Lisiecki meeting Queen Elizabeth II in 2011

As part of the Canada Day celebrations 2011, Lisiecki performed for Queen Elizabeth II and an audience of 100,000 people on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.[13]

Lisiecki was accelerated four grades upon the school board's recommendation and graduated from Western Canada High School in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in January 2011.[14] He completed his undergraduate studies at The Glenn Gould School of The Royal Conservatory of Music, where he was admitted on a full scholarship.[15]

Recording career and international acclaim

Lisiecki's first recording for Deutsche Grammophon, released in April 2012, features Mozart's Piano Concertos K 466, No. 20, in D minor and K 467, No. 21, in C Major with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Christian Zacharias[16][17] and was nominated for 2013 Juno Award in the category Classical Album of the Year.[18]

It was followed in spring 2013 by Chopin's Études Op. 10 and 25,[19][20] which Gramophone Magazine described as "played as pure music, given as naturally as breathing".[21]

Jan Lisiecki with Claudio Abbado in 2013

In March 2013, Lisiecki substituted at short notice for Martha Argerich, performing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4, Op. 58 in Bologna with the Orchestra Mozart under Claudio Abbado.[22] He concluded the season with a performance of Schumann's Piano Concerto Op. 54 at the BBC Proms in Royal Albert Hall with the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under Antonio Pappano.[23]

The following year, Lisiecki made his debuts as soloist with world-class orchestras such as the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala in Milan,[24] Tonhalle Orchester Zurich ,[25] NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo,[26] and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and performed three Mozart concertos in a week with the Philadelphia Orchestra .[27] The same season saw him perform recital debuts at Wigmore Hall, Rome's Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and in San Francisco.[28]

In January 2016, Lisiecki played his debut in the Stern auditorium of New York's famed Carnegie Hall at the age of 20, with what the New York Times called an "uncommonly sensitive performance".[29]

The same month, Deutsche Grammophon released Lisiecki's recording of Schumann's works for piano and orchestra with Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Antonio Pappano.[30] ClassicFM wrote, "he may be young but Jan Lisiecki plays Schumann like a legend".[31]

Shortly after, he made subscription series debuts with the Cleveland Orchestra,[32] Boston,[33] Pittsburgh[34] and San Francisco Symphony,[35] London Philharmonic Orchestra,[36] Vienna Symphony[37] and Staatskapelle Dresden.[38]

Chopin's rarely performed works for piano and orchestra, recorded with NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester and Krzysztof Urbański and released in March 2017,[39] was awarded both the Echo Klassik[40] and the Juno Award,[41] respectively Germany's and Canada's most significant recognitions in the music industry.

Jan Lisiecki at the 2017 ECHO Awards

In August 2018, Lisiecki led the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra from the piano in a performance of Mendelssohn's Piano Concertos No. 1, Op. 25 and No. 2, Op. 40 at the Teatr Wielki in Warsaw, ten years after his first performance and recording at the "Chopin and his Europe" festival.[42] The live recording was released by Deutsche Grammophon in February 2019[43] and nominated for an OPUS Klassik,[44] the successor award for the discontinued Echo Klassik,[45] and Orpheus and Lisiecki toured the concertos extensively throughout Europe and North America,[46] appearing in Carnegie Hall and Elbphilharmonie.

Jan Lisiecki in rehearsal at Mozarteum Salzburg

In 2018, Lisiecki presented a recital programme with works by Chopin, Schumann, Ravel and Rachmaninoff.[47] Titled "Night Music", it was hailed by reviewers as "intoxicating", "divine" and a "metaphysical sound experience".[48]

His sixth album for Deutsche Grammophon sees him leading the Academy of St Martin in the Fields from the piano for all five Beethoven concertos.[49] The September 2019 release was recorded live in three concerts from Konzerthaus Berlin over the course of five days. It is the first release within the label's celebration of the Beethoven Year 2020, an audiovisual release followed in January 2020.[50] In March 2020, Deutsche Grammophon released a Beethoven Lieder recording with baritone Matthias Goerne.[51]

The season also sees him perform both a new solo recital programme as well as Lieder recitals with baritone Matthias Goerne in Paris,[52] London,[53] Hamburg,[54] Munich[55] and New York's Lincoln Center,[56] and a series of Beethoven concerto cycles with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.[57][58] In the last decade, Jan Lisiecki has worked with the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Staatskapelle Dresden, Orchestre de Paris, Camerata Salzburg, Munich Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra and Zürich Chamber Orchestra, and conductors such as Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Daniel Harding, Michael Tilson Thomas and Manfred Honeck.[59]

Media

Radio and television networks worldwide frequently broadcast Lisiecki's performances,[60][61][62][63] and he has been subject to extensive global media coverage,[64][65][66][67] having been featured repeatedly on national television throughout Europe and North America.[68][69]

In 2009, he was the subject of the 2009 CBC National News documentary by Joe Schlesinger, The Reluctant Prodigy.[70] In 2019, Lisiecki was featured as a protagonist in SchumannVR, a virtual reality installation about the life of Robert and Clara Schumann, supported by the Tonhalle Düsseldorf.[71]

Activism and philanthropy

Lisiecki is involved in charity work, donating time and performances to such organizations as the David Foster Foundation, the Polish Humanitarian Action and the Make-A-Wish Foundation.[72] He was appointed UNICEF Ambassador to Canada in 2012,[73] having been a National Youth Representative since 2008.[74]

Discography
Title Album details Peak positions
US Classical
[75]
Chopin: Piano Concertos No. 1 and No. 2
Mozart: Piano Concertos K 466, No. 20, in D minor and K 467, No. 21, in C Major
Chopin: Études
Schumann: Piano Concerto and Concert Pieces Op. 92 & 134
Chopin: Works for Piano and Orchestra 13
Mendelssohn
Beethoven: Complete Piano Concertos
Beethoven: Lieder · Songs

Awards

References
  1. Bachtrack magazine 2019 statistics
  2. . Past performance schedule on Jan Lisiecki website, January 2020
  3. Digital Journal, August 2010
  4. Deutsche Grammophon announcement
  5. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on August 12, 2014. Retrieved February 11, 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link), Calgary Herald, September 30, 2010
  6. Ottawa Citizen, September 27, 2006
  7. Culture.pl, September 2, 2013
  8. Classical Music Sentinel, January 18, 2020
  9. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 18, 2012. Retrieved June 11, 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link), Jan Lisiecki website June 10, 2013
  10. BBC Music Magazine review
  11. Deutsche Grammophon announcement
  12. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on August 12, 2014. Retrieved February 11, 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link), Calgary Herald, September 30, 2010
  13. Star Phoenix March 4, 2016
  14. Last.fm January 18, 2020
  15. The Royal Conservatory of Music January 18, 2020
  16. Deutsche Grammophon, June 10, 2013
  17. , New York Times, March 29, 2013
  18. Calgary Herald, April 18, 2013
  19. Deutsche Grammophon, June 10, 2013
  20. Musical Toronto, April 23, 2013
  21. Gramophone Magazine, October 2013
  22. , Slipped Disc March 14, 2013 Archived May 14, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
  23. The Proms, July 2013
  24. OperaClick, January 2014
  25. Tonhalle Orchester Zurich, Annual Report 2013/14
  26. NHK Symphony Orchestra, October 2014
  27. Philadelphia Orchestra, April 2014
  28. Seen and Heard International, September 2013
  29. New York Times, January 15, 2016
  30. Deutsche Grammophon catalogue
  31. Musical America, January 2017
  32. Ideastream, April 2016
  33. Boston Symphony Orchestra, April 2018
  34. Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, April 2018
  35. San Francisco Symphony, April 2018
  36. London Philharmonic Orchestra, December 2016
  37. Vienna Symphony, January 2017
  38. Staatskapelle Dresden pdf programme, July 2018
  39. Deutsche Grammophon catalogue
  40. Echo Klassik press release, July 27, 2017
  41. "Junos 2018: the complete list of winners". CBC News, March 25, 2018
  42. Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, August 2018
  43. "MENDELSSOHN Lisiecki - 1 CD / Download - Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft". www.deutschegrammophon.com. Retrieved February 3, 2019.
  44. Opus Klassik social media, July 2019
  45. Billboard, April 2018
  46. Dorn Music, April 2019
  47. Toronto Concert Reviews, March 2019
  48. National Arts Centre, October 2019
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  50. Deutsche Grammophon, October 2019
  51. Deutsche Grammophon, March 2020
  52. Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, January 2020
  53. Wigmore Hall, January 2020
  54. Laeiszhalle, January 2020
  55. MünchenMusik, January 2020
  56. Lincoln Center, January 2020
  57. Konzerthaus Dortmund, January 2020
  58. EasyTicket, January 2020
  59. Dorn Music, January 2020
  60. BBC Radio 3, October 2015
  61. WRTI, March 2019
  62. MagentaMusik, July 2019
  63. Medici.tv, January 2020
  64. Maclean's, April 12, 2013
  65. Vogue Italia, October 2013
  66. New York Times, June 2017
  67. CityNews, March 2019
  68. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on November 9, 2013. Retrieved June 11, 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Heute Journal, May 2013
  69. CBC Radio, June 05, 2019
  70. The Reluctant Prodigy, CBC Television, September 09, 2009
  71. KlassikAkzente Magazine, October 24, 2019
  72. Dallas Symphony Orchestra portfolio
  73. UNICEF website
  74. Calgary Herald, November 3, 2008
  75. https://www.billboard.com/charts/classical-albums/2017-09-09
  76. Fryderyk Chopin Institute June 10, 2013
  77. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on July 21, 2011. Retrieved May 19, 2012.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link), Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry June 10, 2013
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  79. Deutsche Grammophon June 10, 2013
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  81. Whole Note Magazine, June 2, 2013
  82. , The Toronto Star April 22, 2013
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  87. Deutsche Grammophon, March 2020
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  90. , The Globe and Mail, January 13, 2010
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  92. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on July 21, 2011. Retrieved May 19, 2012.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link), Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry June 10, 2013
  93. Radio Canada website, January 18, 2020
  94. Radio France website, January 18, 2020
  95. UNICEF portfolio, January 18, 2020
  96. , Calgary Herald April 18, 2013
  97. Gramophone Magazine October 2013
  98. The Globe and Mail, September 19, 2013
  99. Culture.pl, September 2, 2013
  100. Canadian Chopin Society, March 3, 2013
  101. Archived March 20, 2015, at the Wayback Machine Juno Awards 2014
  102. Echo Klassik press release, July 27, 2017
  103. Gramophone Magazine December 2017
  104. Juno Awards 2017
  105. "Junos 2018: the complete list of winners". CBC News, · March 25, 2018
  106. Gramophone Magazine April 2019
  107. Opus Klassik social media, July 2019
  108. Juno Awards 2020
  109. Presto Music, July 2020
  110. Opus Klassik website, July 2020
  111. Opus Klassik website, July 2020
  112. Opus Klassik website, July 2020
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