Biography

Steven Osborne, pianist

Steven Osborne has emerged at the forefront of young British pianists. He embraces a wide range of style and repertoire from the mainstream works of Beethoven, Mozart and Brahms to the rarefied worlds of Messiaen, Tippett and Alkan. His recital programmes are carefully crafted and he is idiomatic in his approach to contrasting works. As Time Out recently noted "He can produce pyrotechnics effortlessly, but never forgets the depths beneath the brilliance".

In the UK he works regularly with the major orchestras including the Philharmonia, London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony, BBC Symphony, and the Hallé. His concerts are regularly broadcast by the BBC and he performs every year at the Wigmore Hall and at the Edinburgh Festival. He has made five appearances at the Proms, most recently in 2005 when he performed the Tippett Piano Concerto.

Concerto performances take Steven to orchestras all over the world including the NHK Symphony, Bergen Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony, Salzberg Mozarteum and the NDR Sinfonieorchester Hannover. With these orchestras he has enjoyed collaborations with conductors including Christoph von Dohnanyi, Evgeny Svetlanov, Sir Charles Mackerras, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Andrew Litton, Alan Gilbert, Marin Alsop, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Vassily Sinaisky.

Steven has given recitals in many leading venues worldwide including the Konzerthaus Vienna, Concertgebouw, Philharmonie Berlin, Musikhalle Hamburg, Suntory Hall Tokyo, Kennedy Center Washington and both Alice Tully Hall and the Frick Collection in New York. In December 2005 he makes his debut at Carnegie Hall and throughout the season will give recitals at the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels, de Singel in Antwerp and in Helsinki for the first time. In the UK he regularly performs at the Wigmore Hall recently appeared at the Queen Elizabeth Hall as part of the International Piano Series.

Steven begins the 2005/6 season touring Australia with the Australian Chamber Orchestra (Britten and Mozart) before returning for his second visit to the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra (Mozart) and to Berlin to perform the Britten Piano Concerto with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra. Elsewhere he performs with the Residentie Orkest (Bartók), Lahti Symphony (Mozart) and will make his Parisian debut with the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris (Mozart). In the UK he give an 8 concert tour with the Philharmonia conducted by Ashkenazy (Shostakovich), and perform with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National Orchestra (Mozart) and BBC Symphony Orchestra (Messiaen).

Steven records regularly with Hyperion. His CD of Messiaen's complete Vingt regards sur l'enfant Jésus was met with staggering praise and was nominated for both a Gramophone Award and a Schallplattenpreis in Germany: "one of the most successful and spectacular piano discs of recent years" (Daily Telegraph, 14 Sep 02). 2003 saw the release of two further CDs: solo works by Alkan and Liszt Harmonies poetiques et religieuses, both of which were selected as "Editor's Choice" in Gramophone. Other recordings include Piano Concertos by Tovey, solo works by the contemporary Russian composer Kapustin which was also nominated for a Schallplattenpreis, and a CD of solo works by Ravel for Musical Heritage in America. Future recording plans include solo, chamber and orchestral works by Tippett, Britten, Shostakovich and Debussy.

Steven was born in Scotland in 1971 and studied with Richard Beauchamp at St. Mary's Music School in Edinburgh and Renna Kellaway at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. He won first prize at both the 1997 Naumburg International Piano Competition (New York) and the 1991 Clara Haskil Competition.

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