Since his triumph as winner of the 1970 Chopin International Piano Competition, pianist Garrick Ohlsson has established himself worldwide as a musician of magisterial interpretive and technical prowess. Although he has long been regarded as one of the world’s leading exponents of the music of Frédéric Chopin, Ohlsson is noted as well for his masterly performances of the works of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, as well as the Romantic repertoire. His concerto repertoire alone is wide and eclectic—to date consisting of some 80 concertos.
In the 2007-08 season, Ohlsson appeared with the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Fort Worth, Houston, Indianapolis, Minnesota, Nashville, San Francisco, Seattle and Toronto. Special projects included performances in Berkeley and Los Angeles with Mark Morris Dance Group and pianist Yoko Nozaki in the critically acclaimed Mozart Dances; performances with the Russian National Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski in California and at New York’s Lincoln Center; and a Florida tour with the Pittsburgh Symphony. With the Sydney Symphony and Vladimir Ashkenazy, he performed Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto. A recital project focusing on the piano music of Scriabin and Russian contemporaries will begin in San Francisco and San Diego in the spring of 2008 and will carry through the 2008-09 season. Additionally, he will perform with the Warsaw Philharmonic, RTVE Madrid, and the MDR Leipzig Symphony Orchestra.
In 2006-07, Ohlsson opened the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York in a live, nationally televised performance. He also appeared with the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Detroit, Milwaukee, Montreal, New Jersey, Oregon, Pittsburgh, San Diego, and Utah. A series of recitals in Anchorage, Boston, Cleveland, Florida, Los Angeles, Ottawa, and San Francisco culminated with three recitals of Beethoven sonatas at Lincoln Center, and a performance of Beethoven’s “Emperor” concerto at Carnegie Hall with Orchestra of St. Luke’s.
Ohlsson is an avid chamber musician and has collaborated with the Cleveland, Emerson, Takács and Tokyo string quartets, among other ensembles. Together with violinist Jorja Fleezanis and cellist Michael Grebanier, he is a founding member of the San Francisco-based FOG Trio. As a recording artist, he can be heard on the Arabesque, RCA Victor Red Seal, Angel, Bridge, BMG, Delos, Hänssler, Nonesuch, Telarc and Virgin Classics labels.
A native of White Plains, N.Y., Ohlsson began his piano studies at the age of 8. He attended the Westchester Conservatory of Music and at 13 entered The Juilliard School in New York City. His distinguished teachers include Claudio Arrau, Olga Barabini, Tom Lishman, Sascha Gorodnitzki, Rosina Lhévinne and Irma Wolpe. He won a Gold Medal at the Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 1970 and since then has made nearly a dozen tours of Poland, where he retains immense personal popularity. He was awarded the Avery Fisher Prize in 1994 and received the 1998 University Musical Society Distinguished Artist Award in Ann Arbor, Mich. He makes his home in San Francisco.
