Since his triumph as winner of the 1970 Chopin International Piano Competition, pianist Garrick Ohlsson has established himself worldwide as a musician of magisterial interpretive and technical prowess, whose enormous repertoire ranges over the entire piano literature. A student of the late Claudio Arrau, Mr. Ohlsson is noted for his masterly performances of the works of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, as well as the Romantic repertoire. To date he has at his command more than 80 concertos, ranging from Haydn and Mozart to works of the 21st century, the most recent being “Oceans Apart” by Justin Dello Joio, commissioned for him by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and now available on Bridge Recordings. Also just released on Reference Recordings is the complete Beethoven concerti with Sir Donald Runnicles and the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra.
An avid chamber musician, Mr. Ohlsson has collaborated with the Cleveland, Emerson, Tokyo and Takacs string quartets. His recording with the latter of the Amy Beach and Elgar quintets released by Hyperion in 2020 received great press attention. Mr. Ohlsson has also appeared in recital with such legendary singers as Magda Olivero, Jessye Norman and Ewa Podleś.
Among Mr. Ohlsson’s many awards and competition prizes, it was his 1970 triumph at the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw, where he won the Gold Medal (and remains the single American to have done so), that brought him worldwide recognition as one of the finest pianists of his generation. In recognition of the Chopin Bicentenary in 2010, Mr. Ohlsson was featured in a documentary "The Art of Chopin" co-produced by Polish, French, British and Chinese television stations and in August 2018 the Polish Deputy Culture Minister awarded him with the Gloria Artis Gold Medal for cultural merit.
Mr. Ohlsson can be heard on several major labels such as RCA Victor Red Seal, Nonesuch, Telarc and Hyperion. His ten-disc set of the complete Beethoven Sonatas, for Bridge Records, has garnered critical acclaim, including a GRAMMY® for Vol. 3. In 2008 Hyperion re-released his 16-disc set of the Complete Works of Chopin, and more recently Scriabin's Complete Poèmes, Smetana Czech Dances, and études by Debussy, Bartok and Prokofiev. The latest CDs in his ongoing association with Bridge Records are the Complete Scriabin Sonatas, “Close Connections,” a recital of 20th-Century pieces, and two CDs of works by Liszt. Mr. Ohlsson is a Steinway Artist and lives in San Francisco.
Website: https://garrickohlsson.com/