Marc-André Hamelin, OC, OQ (born September 5, 1961) is a Canadian virtuoso pianist and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

who has received 11

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

nominations. He is on the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music.

Biography

Born in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

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, Hamelin began his piano studies at the age of five. His father, a pharmacist who was also an amateur pianist, introduced him to the works of Charles-Valentin Alkan, Leopold Godowsky and Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji when he was still young. He studied at the École de musique Vincent-d'Indy in

with Yvonne Hubert and then at

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with Harvey Wedeen. In 1989, he received the Virginia Parker Prize. Hamelin has given recitals in many cities. His festival appearances have included Bad Kissingen, Belfast, Cervantino, La Grange de Meslay, Husum Piano Rarities, Lanaudière, Ravinia, La Roque d’Anthéron, Ruhr Piano, Halifax (Nova Scotia), Singapore Piano, Snape Maltings Proms, Mänttä Music Festival, Turku and Ottawa Strings of the Future, as well as the Chopin Festivals of Bagatelle (Paris), Duszniki and Valldemossa. He appears regularly in both the Wigmore Hall Masterconcert Series and the International Piano Series at London’s South Bank Centre. He plays annually in the Herkulessaal in Munich and has given a series of recitals in Tokyo. In 2020, he performed with the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts, on a special livestream concert with Violinist Lara St. John and the Ulysses Quartet due to worldwide restrictions related to the Covid 19 Pandemic. Hamelin has recorded a wide variety of composers' music with the Hyperion label. His recording of Leopold Godowsky's complete '' Studies on Chopin's Études'' won the 2000 Gramophone Magazine Instrumental Award. He is well known for his attention to lesser-known composers, especially of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries ( Max Reger's Piano Concerto,

Leo Ornstein Leo Ornstein (born ''Lev Ornshteyn''; ; – February 24, 2002) was an American Experimental music, experimental composer and pianist of the early twentieth century. His performances of works by avant-garde composers and his own innovative and ev ...

, Nikolai Roslavets, Georgy Catoire), and for performing works by pianist-composers Sophie-Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatté, Leopold Godowsky, Charles-Valentin Alkan, Kaikhosru Sorabji, Alexander Scriabin, Nikolai Kapustin,

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic music, Romantic period. With a diverse List of compositions by Franz Liszt, body of work spanning more than six ...

, Nikolai Medtner and Frederic Rzewski. Hamelin has also composed several works, including a set of piano études in all of the minor keys; completed in 2009, it was published by C. F. Peters, with a recording released on Hyperion. A cycle of seven pieces, ''Con Intimissimo Sentimento'', was published (with a recording by Hamelin) by Ongaku No Tomo Sha; and a transcription of Zequinha de Abreu's '' Tico-Tico No Fubá'' has been published by Schott Music. Although the majority of his compositions are for solo piano, he has also written three pieces for player piano (including the comical '' Circus Galop'', ''Pop Music for Player Piano'' based upon " Pop Goes the Weasel", and ''Solfeggietto a cinque'', based on a theme by C.P.E. Bach), and several works for other instruments, including ''Fanfares'' for three

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

s, published by Presser. His other works are distributed by the Sorabji Archive. In 1985, Hamelin won the

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International Competition for American Music; he made his recital debut at Carnegie Hall in 1988. In 2004, Hamelin received the international record award in

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. He has been made an Officer of the

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and a Chevalier de l'Ordre national du Québec ( National Order of Québec). He has won seven

Juno Award The Juno Awards (stylized as JUNOS), or simply known as the Junos, are awards presented by Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to recognize outstanding achievements in Canada's mu ...

s, most recently in 2012 for Classical Album of the Year: Solo or Chamber Ensemble, for his Liszt Piano Sonatas album.

Critical appraisal

Writing in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'' in 2000, senior critic

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said: "Hamelin’s legend will grow—right now there is no one like him." Later in 2010, Ross added that Hamelin was ranked highly by piano connoisseurs, and "admired for his monstrously brilliant technique and his questing, deep-thinking approach." In 2015, Zachary Woolfe, classical music editor of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', noted Mr. Hamelin's "preternatural clarity and control, qualities that in him don’t preclude sensitivity reven poetry".

Discography

Personal life

Hamelin's first marriage was to soprano Jody Karin Applebaum. He currently lives in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

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, with his second wife Cathy Fuller, a pianist and WGBH classical music broadcaster. Hamelin has Type 1 diabetes.

References

External links

Hamelin, Marc-André
entry in ''Encyclopedia of Music in Canada'' part of ''

The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; ) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with financial support by the federal Department of Canadian Heritage and Society of Com ...