Canadian pianist Louis Lortie has been praised for the fresh perspective and individuality he brings to a deliberately broad spectrum of the keyboard canon. He studied in Montréal with Yvonne Hubert (a pupil of French pianist, Alfred Cortot), in Vienna with the Beethoven specialist Dieter Weber, and subsequently with Schnabel disciple Leon Fleisher, among others.

Mr. Lortie has performed the complete works of Ravel in London and Montréal for the BBC and CBC, and is also known for his interpretation of Chopin. Following a recital of Chopin’s complete Etudes in London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Financial Times wrote: “Better Chopin playing than this is not to be heard, not anywhere.” He often performs major contemporary works, recently concentrating on pieces by British composer Thomas Ades.

Also celebrated for his interpretation of works by Beethoven, Mr. Lortie has performed the complete Beethoven sonatas in London’s Wigmore Hall, Toronto’s Ford Center, Berlin Philharmonie, and the Sala Grande del Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan. In Berlin, Die Welt called his performances “possibly the most beautiful Beethoven since the times of Wilhelm Kempff.” With the Montreal and Quebec Symphonies, he performed and conducted all five Beethoven Piano Concertos. In the Beethoven Plus Festival, Mr. Lortie performed Beethoven’s 32 sonatas for piano; plus the complete sonatas and trios with violin and cello. He opened the Bonn Beethoven Festival in 2003 playing Beethoven’s Fourth Concerto with Kurt Masur conducting, and since then has established a particularly fruitful partnership with Mr. Masur. They performed together with the New York Philharmonic, and in Paris with the Orchestre National de France. Future plans include concerts together with the San Francisco Symphony and ONF concerts in the UK, and in Vienna.

Over several seasons Mr. Lortie plays and conducts the 27 Mozart Piano Concertos (in combination with conducting various symphonic works by other composers) with the Montreal Symphony, culminating with 3 concerts in May, 2008. Last season he began his multi-concert Wagner/Liszt project at London’s Wigmore Hall, and performed it in Berlin, Milan, Domain Forget, the Weimar Festival, Bordeaux and Warsaw. He also performed his third recital on Carnegie Hall’s Great Artists series. In 2007-2008 Mr. Lortie explores the music of Schumann and Grieg at several summer festivals, both in solo recital and in chamber music concerts. He also performs with the San Francisco Symphony, the City of Birmingham Symphony, the Orchestre National de Paris, the Sydney Symphony, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the National Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic, the Indianapolis Symphony, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Northern Sinfonia. He plays recitals in Philadelphia, Florence, Toronto, Milan, San Francisco, Ottawa and London.

Louis Lortie has performed under the baton of conductors Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Seiji Ozawa, Charles Dutoit, Kurt Sanderling, Neeme Jarvi, Sir Andrew Davis, Wolfgang Sawallisch, and Osmo Vanska. He has also been involved in many chamber music projects, with musicians such as Frank Peter Zimmermann, Leonidas Kavakos, Renaud and Gautier Capucon, Jan Vogler, Augustin Dumay and Gidon Kremer. His regular piano-duo partner is fellow Canadian Helene Mercier, with whom he has made successful recordings on the Chandos label.

Mr. Lortie has made over 30 recordings on the Chandos label, ranging from Mozart to Stravinsky. His recording of Beethoven’s Eroica Variations won the Edison Award, and his disc of Schumann’s Bunte Blatter and other works by Schumann and Brahms was named one of the best CDs of the year by BBC Music Magazine. He has recorded Ravel’s complete works for piano and has almost completed the 32 Beethoven sonatas. His recording of the complete Chopin Etudes, opp. 10 and 25, has been cited by BBC Music Magazine’s special Piano Issue as one of “50 Recordings by Superlative Pianists”. Mr. Lortie’s most recent CD release is the final recording in his three-CD series of Liszt’s complete works for piano and orchestra with the Residentie Orchestra of The Hague. It was immediately named “Editor’s Choice” by Gramophone Magazine. In addition to the current Liszt recordings, other recent releases include To the Distant Beloved, with works by Beethoven, Schumann and Liszt, and Franck’s Symphonic Variations with the BBC Symphony.

Born in Montréal, Louis Lortie made his debut with the Montréal Symphony at the age of thirteen and the Toronto Symphony three years later, which as a result engaged him for an historic tour of the People’s Republic of China and Japan. In 1984, he won First Prize in the Busoni Competition and was a prize-winner at the Leeds Competition. In 1992 he was named Officer of the Order of Canada, and received both the Order of Quebec and an honorary doctorate from Laval University. As his schedule permits, he teaches at Italy’s renowned piano institute at Imola. Mr. Lortie has lived in Berlin since 1997 and also has a home in Canada.

More information about the artist is available at www.louislortie.com

June 2007 – Please discard any previously dated materials.