Rafał Blechacz is the winner of the prestigious Gilmore Artist Award in 2014 – an award given every four years to a distinguished, extraordinary concert pianist regardless of age or nationality. He is recognized as his generation’s greatest performer of Chopin’s works. In October 2005, uncontested, Blechacz won all prizes of the prestigious 15th Frédéric Chopin International Piano Competition. The young Polish pianist has since then established himself firmly on the international concert scene, and is celebrated by both the audience and the press worldwide for his profound and virtuosic interpretations.
Blechacz has performed with renowned orchestras such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien, Camarata Salzburg, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra dell 'Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Minnesota Orchestra, and Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He gives recitals in the world’s major concert halls including Philharmonie Berlin, Prinzregententheater in Munich, Salle Pleyel in Paris, Wigmore Hall London, Queen’s Hall Edinburgh, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, La Scala Milan, Vienna Konzerthaus and Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, as well as further afield in New York, Boston, Atlanta, Vancouver, Tokyo, Korea and Taiwan.
Highlights of his 18/19 season include concerts with the hr-Sinfonieorchester and Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, as well as performances with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal on tour in Europe. He looks forward to his recitals in venues such as Town Hall Birmingham, Beethovenhaus Bonn, Teatro Filarmonico in Verona, as well as his celebrated return to the Wigmore Hall London, Philharmonie Berlin, Konzerthaus Dortmund and Tonhalle Zürich.
Rafał Blechacz is an exclusive recording artist of Deutsche Grammophon. His debut CD of Chopin Preludes won the Platinum Record status in his native Poland, as well as a German Echo Klassik and French Diapason D’or award. His CD of both Chopin concerti with the Concertgebouw Orchestra under the baton of Jerzy Semkow was awarded the “Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik”. In 2012, his recording of works by Debussy and Szymanowski was released and awarded "Recording of the Month" by Gramophone magazine and "Solo Recording of the Year” by Echo Klassik. These are followed by the acclaimed release of his fifth album of Chopin Polonaises in 2013, and the most recent solo CD of works by J.S Bach in 2017.
Born in 1985, Blechacz began his studies aged five continuing his piano education in the Artur Rubinstein State School of Music in Bydgoszcz. In 2007, he graduated from the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz, the piano class of Professor Katarzyna Popowa- Zydroń. In 2010, he received the Premio Internazionale Accademia Musicale Chigiana (Italy), awarded annually by an international jury of music critics to young musicians for their outstanding artistic achievements. In 2015 he was awarded the Cavalier’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.