Martin Helmchen piano

Fellowship Winner 2004

In September 2006 Martin Helmchen was the recipient of the Crédit Suisse Young Artist Award marked by his debut with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Valery Gergiev at the 2006 Lucerne Festival. As an artist on the BBC New Generation scheme, he continues a season of performances with the BBC Symphony, Scottish and Philharmonic orchestras and gave his Wigmore Hall solo recital last December. Martin Helmchen has recently won a recording contract with PentaTone and in spring 2007 he records Mozart’s piano concerti KV415 and 491 with the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra. During 2006/7 Martin Helmchen has made debuts with Philippe Herreweghe and the Royal Flanders Philharmonic, Radio Berlin Symphony Orchestra with Marek Janowski, the Beethovenhalle Orchestra, Bonn with Bruno Weil and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra with Marc Albrecht. He was recently named Artist in Residence by the Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin in 2008/9 in collaboration with its new chief conductor Lothar Zagrosek. A keen chamber musician, Martin worked closely with the late cellist Boris Pergamenschikow – a pedagogue who made considerable impact on this young pianist. His recent duo partnership, performing complete Beethoven cycles with cellist Heinrich Schiff at, among others, the Schleswig-Holstein and Klavierfestival Ruhr festivals, is set to continue. Martin Helmchen also performs recital debuts at the Lucerne Festival and in Salzburg. Since 2001, Martin has been a student of Prof. Arie Vardi at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hanover. In 2001 he won the Clara Haskil Competition in Switzerland. Martin Helmchen was born in 1982 in Berlin.

Photograph taken by Marco Borggreve