“Nothing disconcerts the glorious, unshowy Martin Helmchen - the kind of performer who lifts his audiences up to heaven just by penetrating inside his music with nimble fingers, questing intelligence and a beating heart.”
- The Times
Martin Helmchen has established himself as one of the prominent exceptional pianists of the younger generation. He performs with such orchestras as Berliner Philharmoniker under Herbert Blomstedt, Wiener Philharmoniker under Valery Gergiev, London Philharmonic Orchestra under Vladimir Jurowski, City of Birmigham Symphony Orchestra and Boston Symphony under Andris Nelsons and New York Philharmonic under Christoph von Dohnányi.
He also enjoys collaborations with conductors such as David Afkham, Marc Albrecht, Sir Mark Elder, Edward Gardner, Philippe Herreweghe, Manfred Honeck, Paavo Järvi, Emmanuel Krivine, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Christoph Poppen, Michael Sanderling and David Zinman.
His quest for exploring all facets of music-making is born in his passion for chamber music – which was largely ignited in early collaborations with the late cellist Boris Pergamenschikow. Helmchen‘s chamber music partners have included Juliane Banse, Matthias Goerne, Veronika Eberle, Marie-Elisabeth Hecker, Christian Tetzlaff, Antje Weithaas, Carolin Widmann and Frank Peter Zimmermann. He is a regular guest to London’s Wigmore Hall.
Scandinavia is a focus of his 2018/19 season, which includes his debut with Oslo Philharmonic, plus returns to the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Elsewhere, he debuts with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai / Italy and the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg. Helmchen continues his close cooperation with the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin under Andrew Manze, and also returns to the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
He furthermore embarks on his Beethoven Cycle project with Frank Peter Zimmermann, which will span into 2019/2020, and features the duo in London, Berlin, Dresden, Freiburg, Warsaw, Madrid and Bilbao. To round off the season, he will additionally tour with Sabine Meyer and wind ensemble.
Martin Helmchen is an exclusive artist of Alpha Classics. Last year he released a solo CD of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, a CD of Schumann’s chamber music featuring Marie-Elisabeth Hecker and Antje Weithaas, and a Duo CD of Brahms featuring Marie-Elisabeth Hecker. He has recorded numerous CDs for Pentatone Classics, which include piano concertos by Mozart, Schumann and Mendelssohn, as well as chamber music by Schubert, Schumann and Brahms.
Born in Berlin in 1982 and a former student of Galina Iwanzowa in Berlin, Helmchen continued his studies with Arie Vardie at the Hochschule für Musik Hannover. His other mentors include William Grant Naboré and Alfred Brendel. In 2001 he won the “Concours Clara Haskil” and in 2006 he was awarded the “Credit Suisse Young Artist Award”. Since 2010, Martin Helmchen has been an Associate Professor of chamber music at the Kronberg Academy.
