Martin Helmchen

Martin Helmchen, born in 1982, has established himself as one of the prominent exceptional pianists of the younger generation. He performs with such orchestras as Berliner Philharmoniker under Herbert Blomstedt, Wiener Philharmoniker under Valery Gergiev, London Philharmonic Orchestra under Vladimir Jurowski, City of Birmigham Symphony Orchestra and Boston Symphony under Andris Nelsons and New York Philharmonic under Christoph von Dohnányi.

He also enjoys collaborations with conductors such as David Afkham, Marc Albrecht, Sir Mark Elder, Edward Gardner, Philippe Herreweghe, Manfred Honeck, Paavo Järvi, Emmanuel Krivine, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Christoph Poppen, Michael Sanderling and David Zinman.

His quest for exploring all facets of music-making is born in his passion for chamber music – which was largely ignited in early collaborations with the late cellist Boris Pergamenschikow. Helmchen‘s chamber music partners have included Juliane Banse, Matthias Goerne, Veronika Eberle, Marie-Elisabeth Hecker, Christian Tetzlaff, Antje Weithaas, Carolin Widmann and Frank Peter Zimmermann. He is a regular guest to London’s Wigmore Hall. With Marie-Elisabeth Hecker, Martin Helmchen commissioned a double concerto for violoncello and piano from York Höller, which they premiered at the Ruhr Piano Festival in June 2022.

Martin Helmchen is an exclusive artist of Alpha Classics. Last year he released a solo CD of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, a CD of Schumann’s chamber music featuring Marie-Elisabeth Hecker and Antje Weithaas, and a Duo CD of Brahms featuring Marie-Elisabeth Hecker. He has recorded numerous CDs for Pentatone Classics, which include piano concertos by Mozart, Schumann and Mendelssohn, as well as chamber music by Schubert, Schumann and Brahms. In 2020, he was awarded the prestigious Gramophone Music Award for his recording of all of Ludwig van Beethoven's piano concertos with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under Andrew Manze, released by Alpha Classics. In march 2022, the highly acclaimed album "Novelletten und Gesänge der Frühe" with piano works by Robert Schumann was released. The same year, he received the renowned ICMA-Award.

A former student of Galina Iwanzowa in Berlin, Helmchen continued his studies with Arie Vardie at the Hochschule für Musik Hannover. His other mentors include William Grant Naboré and Alfred Brendel. In 2001 he won the “Concours Clara Haskil” and in 2006 he was awarded the “Credit Suisse Young Artist Award”.

Since 2010, Martin Helmchen has been a visiting professor of chamber music at the Kronberg Academy.