Martin
Helmchen
piano
BBT
Fellowship Winner
2004
With his highly virtuosic yet unpretentious style, Martin Helmchen is increasingly recognised on the international music scene. Helmchen’s debut disc of Mozart concerti with the Netherlands Chamber Philharmonic was released in September 2007 with PentaTone. His first solo recording of Schubert works will be released in autumn 2008. Martin Helmchen has been studying with Arie Vardie at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover since 2001, the year in which he also won the Clara Haskil Competition. The Credit Suisse Young Artist Award in 2006 culminated with his debut with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev at the Lucerne Festival. In the same year he was awarded the ECHO Rising Artist of the Year award with cellist Danjulo Ishizaka for their duo recording for Sony/BMG. Between 2005 and 2007 Martin Helmchen was a soloist on the BBC New Generation Artists scheme. Martin Helmchen has performed with the orchestras of RSO Stuttgart, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, London Philharmonic Orchestra and BBC Symphony Orchestra; and worked with conductors such as Marc Albrecht, Yakov Kreizburg, Marek Janowski, Vladimir Jurowski, Kurt Masur. 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, Juliane Banse, Julia Fischer, Sabine Meyer. In the 2008/09 season, Martin Helmchen will be Artist in Residence in his hometown at the Konzerthaus Berlin. He will make his debut with Vienna Symphony, Hallé Orchestra Manchester and Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich and the Royal Flanders Philharmonic. Forthcoming recitals include performances in Paris, the Lucerne Piano Festival, Zurich, Berlin and his recital debut on London’s International Piano Series at the Southbank Centre.
Photograph taken by Marco Borggreve
Since
winning his BBT fellowship award four years ago, Martin Helmchen's
reputation has been thriving: he won the Credit Suisse Young Artist
Award in 2006 and a recording contract with PentaTone in 2007
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- Study costs
- Survival money for a sabbatical
- New photos
- CD to be recorded live with the London Philharmonic Orchestra
Martin Helmchen chose to spend some of his BBT Fellowship budget on making a professional demo recording of Janácek's intense two-movement sonata, 1.X.1905.
Jonathan Swain introduces two recordings, including one of Martin Helmchen's winning performance at the Clara Haskil Piano Competition on 11th September 2001. This track was produced for BBT as part of an audio CD and CD-ROM, showcasing its 2004 winners. An accompanying film profile of Martin Helmchen is also on this website.