With his highly virtuosic yet unpretentious style, pianist Martin Helmchen continues to make an impression on the international music scene. A recipient of the “Echo Klassik” and the “Credit Suisse Young Artists Award” he has already achieved two of the most significant prizes in the music scene as well as recent debuts with major orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic with Herbert Blomstedt, Vienna Philharmonic and Valery Gergiev, London Philharmonic with Valdimir Jurowski and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons.
The 2010/11 season will see Martin Helmchen make further notable debuts with the Orchestre de Paris and Christoph von Dohnànyi, a debut with Sir Mark Elder in a return with the Hallé Orchestra (UK), and his north American debut for the prestigious Vancouver Recital Society. Futhermore in 2010/11 Helmchen maintains his close collaboration with Yakov Kreizburg both with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo and the Netherlands Philharmonic, he performs with Gürzenich Orchestra Köln with Markus Stenz, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Kirill Karabits, the Milan G. Verdi Orchestra under Claus Peter Flor, and he will perform his first Beethoven concerto cycle in a matter of days with the Musikkollegium Winterthur under the direction of Douglas Boyd. HHe tours with the NHK Symphony, Tokyo and Sir Roger Norrington, the NDR Hannover orchestra under the baton of Andrés Orozco-Estrada and with the Academy of St Martin’s in the Fields and Sir Neville Marriner in Germany.
In recital he can be heard in Brussels, Antwerp, Lyon, London, Florence, Perugia and Trieste. With his passion for chamber music largely ignited in early collaborations with the late cellist Boris Pergamenschikow he peforms throughout Europe; with Heinrich Schiff performing Beethoven duos in Vienna’s Konzerthaus; with Marie-Elisabeth Hecker in Paris, Bonn, London’s Wigmore Hall and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw with the two joining Veronika Eberle in trio. In duo he performs a recital tour with Julia Fischer in London, Spain and Germany. Other partners from whom Martin has drawn much inspiration include Gidon Kremer, Christian Tetzlaff, Sharon Kam, Juliane Banse, Julia Fischer and Sabine Meyer. In Summer 2010 he was a guest of Elena Bashkirova’s International Chamber Music Festival, Jerusalem.
Through his exclusive contract with PentaTone since 2007, Helmchen has released discs of Mozart concerti with the Netherlands Chamber Philharmonic and Schumann/Dvorak with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg. His first solo recording of Schubert works, won an ECHO Award in 2009 and a disc of Schubert duos with Julia Fischer has won no less acclaim.
After studies in Berlin with Galina Iwanzowa, Martin Helmchen continues studies with Arie Vardie at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover and with William Grant Naboré from the „Klavierakademie Comer See“. An early impact on his career was winning the „2001 Clara Haskil Competition”. He was a Fellow of the Borletti-Buitoni-Trust in 2005 and the “Credit Suisse Young Artist Award” in 2006 culminated with his debut with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Valery Gergiev at the Lucerne Festival. Between 2005 and 2007 Martin Helmchen was a soloist on the “BBC New Generation Artists” scheme.
