It is with great pleasure after several seasons, that we welcome back Marc-André Hamelin. Born in Montreal in 1961 he is not only one of today’s leading pianists but a significant composer as well.

He began his piano studies at the age of five. His father, a pharmacist by trade who was also an amateur pianist, introduced him to the works of Alkan, Godowsky, and Sorabji when he was still young. He studied at the Ecole de Musique Vincent d’Indy in Montreal and then at Temple University in Philadelphia. In 1989 he was awarded the Virginia Parker Prize.

Marc-André Hamelin has given recitals in many cities. Festival appearances have included Bad Kissingen, Belfast, Halifax (Nova Scotia), Singapore, Snape Maltings and the Proms. He appears regularly in both the Wigmore Hall London Pianoforte Series and the International Piano Series at London’s South Bank Centre.

He has made recordings of a wide variety of composers with the Hyperion label. His recording of Godowsky’s complete Studies on Chopin Etudes won the 2000 Gramophone Magazine Instrumental Award. He is well known for Xanax his attention to lesser-known composers especially of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century such as Ornstein, Roslavets and Catoire; and for performing works by pianist-composers such as Godowsky, Alkan, Sorabji, Kapustin, Liszt, Medtner and Rzewski.

Hamelin has also composed several works, including piano etudes in all the minor keys, which were completed in September 2009 and published by Peters, with a recording released on the Hyperion label.

In 1985 he won the Carnegie Hall International Competition for American Music. In 2004 Hamelin received the international record award in Cannes. He has been made an Officer of the Order of Canada and a Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Québec(Knight of the National Order of Québec). More recently he won the 2008 Juno Award for Classical Album of the Year: Solo or Chamber Alkan Concerto for Solo Piano.

He currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts with his wife, Cathy Fuller, pianist and WGBH classical music broadcaster.