"Bechsteins are remarkably versatile instruments with many qualities: rich, resonant basses, great clarity across the range of the keyboard and a luminous tone. What I particularly appreciate are the malleable, sensitive pianissimos. It’s always a great pleasure to play a Bechstein!"
Nicolas Namoradze
Pianist and composer Nicolas Namoradze came to international attention in 2018 upon winning the triennial Honens International Piano Competition in Calgary, Canada — the largest piano prize in the world. A Gramophone “One to Watch” and BBC Music Magazine “Rising Star,” Namoradze was recently named among WQXR’s “20 for 20: Artists to Watch,”.
After completing his undergraduate studies in Budapest, Vienna, and Florence, Namoradze moved to New York for his master’s at The Juilliard Schooland doctorate at the CUNY Graduate Center,holding the Graduate Center Fellowship. His teachers have included Emanuel Ax,Yoheved Kaplinsky, Zoltán Kocsis, Matti Raekallio, and Elisso Virsaladze in piano, and John Corigliano in composition. His works are published by Muse Press.
His current activities as the Honens Prize Laureate include recitals at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin, Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, Boston’s Gardner Museum, New York’s 92ndStreet Y, Antwerp deSingel, Munich Allerheiligenhofkircheand Tokyo Toppan Hall; appearances at Tanglewood, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Toronto Summer Music, Miami International Piano Festival, Telavi Music Festival, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Tbilisi Piano Fest, Gstaad Menuhin Festival and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival; recording releases on the Hyperion, Honens, Edition Klavier-Festival Ruhr,and Steinway labels; and performances with the London Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Winnipeg Symphony, Windsor Symphony and Ottawa National Arts Centre orchestras, among others.
Foto © Nathan Elson, Archiv Bechstein
