Igor Levit

Source: forartists.de

With an alert and critical mind, Igor Levit places his art in the context of social events and understands it as inseparably linked to them. The New York Times describes Igor Levit as one of the “most important artists of his generation”, the New Yorker as a pianist “like no other”. Since the 2022-23 season, Igor Levit is the Co-Artistic Director of the Heidelberger Frühling Musikfestival. With the Lucerne Festival he initiated the Piano Fest which will take place in May 2025 for the third time.

In the 2024/25 season Igor Levit performs in recital at the Musikverein Vienna, Philharmonie Berlin, La Scala Milan, Carnegie Hall New York, Walt Disney Concert Hall Los Angeles, Concertgebouw Amsterdam as well as in Naples, Rome, Stockholm and Évian among others. For the inauguration of Christian Thielemann as the new General Music Director of the Berlin State Opera, he opens the new season with the Staatskapelle Berlin. Further highlights of Igor Levits orchestral season are a full Beethoven cycle with the Cleveland orchestra and Franz Welser Möst as well as a Prokofiev cycle with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Ivan Fischer. With the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and Sir Antonio Pappano and the Orchestra of the Bayerische Rundfunk and Esa-Pekka Salonen he will interpret the monumental piano concerto of Ferrucio Busoni.

Igor Levit’s 2019 highly-acclaimed first recording of the 32 Beethoven-Sonatas was awarded the Gramophone „Artist of the Year“ Award as well as the Opus Klassik in autumn 2020. In June 2022 his Album “On DSCH” has been awarded the “Recording of the Year” Award as well as the Instrumental Award of the BBC Music Magazine. As a reaction to the attacks of the Hamas on 7th October 2023, Igor Levit recorded a selection of the Lieder ohne Worte from Mendelssohn among other, his most personal album so far. A live recording of the acclaimed piano concertos of Johannes Brahms with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Christian Thielemann, paired with Brahms’ Fantasies and Piano Pieces, will be released in October 2024. In spring 2021 Hanser published Igor Levit’s first book “House Concert”, co-authored by Florian Zinnecker followed in Fall 2022 by the release of the feature documentary “Igor Levit – No Fear” in cinemas and on DVD.

Born in Nizhni Novgorod, Igor Levit moved to Germany with his family at the age of eight. He completed his piano studies in Hannover with the highest score in the history of the institute. His teachers included Karl-Heinz Kämmerling, Matti Raekallio, Bernd Goetzke, Lajos Rovatkay and Hans Leygraf. Igor Levit was the youngest participant in the 2005 International Arthur Rubinstein Competition in Tel Aviv, where he won silver, the special prize for chamber music, the audience prize and the special prize for the best performance of contemporary pieces.

In 2018 Igor Levit has been named the eighth recipient of the prestigious “Gilmore Artist Award” – conferred only every four years to a classical pianist and recognized as the largest and one of the world’s most distinguished music awards. In spring 2019 he was appointed professor for piano at his alma mater, the University of Music, Theatre and Media Hanover.

For his political commitment Igor Levit has been awarded the 5th International Beethoven Prize in 2019 followed by the award of the “Statue B” of the International Auschwitz Committee in January 2020. His 53 Twitter-streamed live house concerts during the lockdown in spring 2020 garnered a worldwide audience, offering a sense of community and hope in a time of isolation and desperation. In October 2020 Igor Levit was recognized with the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. In Berlin, where he makes his home, Igor Levit is playing on a Steinway D Grand Piano kindly given to him by the Trustees of Independent Opera at Sadler’s Wells.