Earlier this week, 18-year-old Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki was named Young Artist of the Year during the Gramophone Classical Music Awards 2013 in London.
This award comes on the heels of news that Lisiecki has made his second recording on the Deutsche Grammophon label, of Chopin études Op. 10 and 25, to be released in the U.S. on October 8. The album was relased in Canada earlier this year to critical acclaim.
The Toronto Star wrote, "Exactly one month after his 18th birthday, Calgary-born pianist Jan Lisiecki boldly declares his membership in the company of grown-up artists with this excellent recording...all 24 études have emerged elegantly formed, ready for prime time...what a way to turn 18."
Lisiecki signed an exclusive recording agreement with DG at the age of 15.
Earlier this summer, he received another award--the Leonard Bernstein Award of the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival. Chosen by an international jury, the Bernstein Award is given to young musicians for outstanding achievements in classical music.
"I think my father would have loved the way you interpret Mozart with such deep feeling," said Bernstein's daughter Jamie at the awards presentation in August.
Although he is just 18, Lisiecki has a career that would be the envy of pianists twice his age.
In the past few years, he has performed with prominent orchestras around the world, including the Orchestre de Paris, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. He's substituted for Martha Argerich and Nelson Freire, and shared the stage with Yo-Yo Ma, Pinchas Zukerman and Emanuel Ax.
All this from a pianist who hasn't even earned his bachelor's degree yet.
Lisiecki (b. 1995) skipped four grades and graduated from high school in January 2011. Since then, he has been studying for that baccalaureate at the Glenn Gould School of Music in Toronto, living the life of a typical undergraduate...in between international tours, that is.
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