Charles Richard-Hamelin stands out on the international music scene as a “highly sensitive” pianist (Gramophone), driven by “a great depth of feeling without the slightest condescension” (Le Devoir). He is recognized as “fluent, multifaceted and tonally seductive… a technician of exceptional elegance and sophistication” (BBC Music Magazine).
Silver medalist and winner of the Krystian Zimerman Prize at the 2015 International Chopin Piano Competition, Canadian pianist Charles Richard-Hamelin has emerged as one of the most important pianists of his generation. He gained international recognition when he took second prize at the Montréal International Musical Competition and third prize at the Seoul International Music Competition. Charles is a recipient of the Order of Arts and Letters of Quebec and the prestigious Career Development Award conferred by the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto. In November 2022, he received the Prix Denise-Pelletier, becoming the youngest winner in the history of the Prix du Québec.
He has been invited to many major festivals, including La Roque d’Anthéron in France, the Prague Spring Festival, the “Chopin and his Europe” Festival in Warsaw, the Lanaudière Festival, and the George Enescu Festival in Bucarest. As a soloist, he has performed with some 50 ensembles, including all the major Canadian orchestras (Montréal, Toronto, Ottawa, Métropolitain, Quebec City, Edmonton, Calgary, etc.) and the Warsaw Philharmonic, Sinfonia Varsovia, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Korean Symphony Orchestra, OFUNAM (Mexico City), Violons du Roy, and I Musici de Montréal.
He has worked with renowned conductors such as Kent Nagano, Rafael Payare, Antoni Wit, Vasily Petrenko, Jacek Kaspszyk, Bernard Labadie, Aziz Shokhakimov, Peter Oundjian, Jacques Lacombe, Fabien Gabel, Carlo Rizzi, John Storgårds, Alexander Prior, Giancarlo Guerrero, Christoph Campestrini, Lan Shui, and Jean-Marie Zeitouni. A graduate of McGill University, the Yale School of Music, and the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal, he has studied with Paul Surdulescu, Sara Laimon, Boris Berman, André Laplante, and Jean Saulnier.
Richard-Hamelin has recorded ten albums, all for the Analekta label including his most recent one with violinist Andrew Wan released in November 2022. Five of these are dedicated primarily to the solo piano works of Frédéric Chopin. He has also recorded concertante works—both Chopin piano concertos with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal conducted by Kent Nagano and Mozart’s piano concertos nos. 22 and 24 with the Violons du Roy conducted by Jonathan Cohen. His recordings have earned several Félix (ADISQ) and one JUNO (2022) awards and received widespread acclaim from critics around the world.
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