Marc-André Hamelin, OC, CQ (born September 5, 1961), is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

virtuoso

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, j ...

and composer. Hamelin is recognized worldwide for the originality and technical proficiency of his performances of the classic repertoire. He has received 11

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

nominations.

Biography

Born in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...

, Hamelin began his piano studies at the age of five. His father, a pharmacist by trade who was also an amateur pianist, introduced him to the works of

Charles-Valentin Alkan Charles-Valentin Alkan (; 30 November 1813 – 29 March 1888) was a French Jewish composer and virtuoso pianist. At the height of his fame in the 1830s and 1840s he was, alongside his friends and colleagues Frédéric Chopin and Franz Li ...

, Leopold Godowsky, and Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji when he was still young. He studied at the

École de musique Vincent-d'Indy The école de musique Vincent-d'Indy is a subsidized private music college situated in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in the Outremont district, that specializes in music education. Programs L'école Vincent-d'Indy offers programs that result in stu ...

with Yvonne Hubert and then at

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptists, Baptist minister Russell Conwell an ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. In 1989, he was awarded the Virginia Parker Prize. Hamelin has given recitals in many cities. Festival appearances have included Bad Kissingen, Belfast, Cervantino, La Grange de Meslay, Husum Piano Rarities, Lanaudière, Ravinia, La Roque d’Anthéron, Ruhr Piano, Halifax (Nova Scotia), Singapore Piano, Snape Maltings Proms, Mänttä Music Festival, Turku and Ottawa Strings of the Future, as well as the Chopin Festivals of Bagatelle (Paris), Duszniki and Valldemossa. He appears regularly in both the

Wigmore Hall Wigmore Hall is a concert hall located at 36 Wigmore Street, London. Originally called Bechstein Hall, it specialises in performances of chamber music, early music, vocal music and song recitals. It is widely regarded as one of the world's leadi ...

Masterconcert Series and the International Piano Series at London’s

South Bank The South Bank is an entertainment and commercial district in central London, next to the River Thames opposite the City of Westminster. It forms a narrow strip of riverside land within the London Borough of Lambeth (where it adjoins Albert ...

Centre. He plays annually in the Herkulessaal in Munich and has given a series of recitals in Tokyo. Hamelin has made recordings of a wide variety of composers with the

Hyperion Hyperion may refer to: Greek mythology * Hyperion (Titan), one of the twelve Titans * ''Hyperion'', a byname of the Sun, Helios * Hyperion of Troy or Yperion, son of King Priam Science * Hyperion (moon), a moon of the planet Saturn * ''Hyp ...

label. His recording of Leopold Godowsky's complete ''

Studies on Chopin's Études The ''Studies on Chopin's Études'' are a set of 53 arrangements of Chopin's études by Leopold Godowsky, composed between 1894 and 1914. They are renowned for their technical difficulty: critic Harold C. Schonberg called them "the most impossib ...

'' won the 2000 Gramophone Magazine Instrumental Award. He is well known for his attention to lesser-known composers, especially of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century ( Max Reger,

Leo Ornstein Leo Ornstein (born ''Лев Орнштейн'', ''Lev Ornshteyn''; – February 24, 2002) was an American experimental composer and pianist of the early twentieth century. His performances of works by avant-garde composers and his own innovative ...

, Nikolai Roslavets, Georgy Catoire), and for performing works by the pianist-composers Sophie-Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatté, Leopold Godowsky, Charles-Valentin Alkan, Kaikhosru Sorabji, Alexander Scriabin, Nikolai Kapustin,

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

, Nikolai Medtner, and Frederic Rzewski. Hamelin has also composed several works, including a set of piano études in all of the minor keys, which was completed in September 2009 and is published by C. F. Peters, with a recording released on the Hyperion label. A cycle of seven pieces, called ''Con Intimissimo Sentimento'', was published (with a recording by Hamelin) by Ongaku No Tomo Sha, and a transcription of

Zequinha de Abreu José Gomes de Abreu, better known as Zequinha de Abreu (September 19, 1880 – January 22, 1935), was a Brazilian musician and composer. Abreu was born in Santa Rita do Passa Quatro, São Paulo state. He is best known for the famous chor ...

's '' Tico-Tico No Fubá'' has been published by Schott Music. Although the majority of his compositions are for piano solo, he has also written three pieces for

player piano A player piano (also known as a pianola) is a self-playing piano containing a pneumatic or electro-mechanical mechanism, that operates the piano action via programmed music recorded on perforated paper or metallic rolls, with more modern i ...

(including the comical '' Circus Galop'', ''Pop Music for Player Piano'' based upon " Pop Goes the Weasel", and ''Solfeggietto a cinque'', which is based on a theme by

C.P.E. Bach Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (8 March 1714 – 14 December 1788), also formerly spelled Karl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, and commonly abbreviated C. P. E. Bach, was a German Classical period musician and composer, the fifth child and sec ...

), and several works for other forces, including ''Fanfares'' for three

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standar ...

s, published by Presser. His other works are distributed by the Sorabji Archive. In 1985, Hamelin won the Carnegie Hall International Competition for American Music. In 2004, he received the international record award in

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The ci ...

. Hamelin has been made an Officer of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the c ...

and a Chevalier de l'Ordre national du Québec ( National Order of Québec). He has won seven

Juno Award The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall o ...

s, the most recent one in 2012 for Classical Album of the Year: Solo or Chamber Ensemble for his Liszt Piano Sonata album.

Critical appraisal

Writing in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issue ...

'' in 2000, senior critic Alex Ross pronounced: "Hamelin’s legend will grow—right now there is no one like him." Later in 2010, Ross added that Hamelin is ranked highly by piano connoisseurs, and "is admired for his monstrously brilliant technique and his questing, deep-thinking approach." In 2015, Zachary Woolfe, classical music editor of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', noted Mr. Hamelin's "preternatural clarity and control, qualities that in him don’t preclude sensitivity reven poetry".

Discography

Personal life

Hamelin's first marriage was to soprano Jody Karin Applebaum. He currently lives in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, with his second wife Cathy Fuller, pianist and WGBH classical music broadcaster. Hamelin has Type 1 diabetes.

References

External links

Hamelin, Marc-André
entry in ''Encyclopedia of Music in Canada'' part of ''

The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; french: L'Encyclopédie canadienne) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with the support of Canadian Heritage. Available f ...

''
Archived
at the Wayback Machine.
Extensive interview
by Ethan Iverson
Official Website

Marc-André Hamelin at Hyperion Records

* ttp://www.colbertartists.com/marc-andre-hamelin Marc-André Hamelin at Colbert Artists Management, Inc. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hamelin, Marc-Andre 1961 births Canadian classical pianists Male classical pianists Contemporary classical music performers French Quebecers Juno Award for Classical Album of the Year – Solo or Chamber Ensemble winners Knights of the National Order of Quebec Living people Officers of the Order of Canada Musicians from Montreal 20th-century classical composers 21st-century classical composers Male classical composers 20th-century Canadian pianists Canadian male pianists 21st-century classical pianists 20th-century Canadian male musicians 21st-century Canadian male musicians