John LILL, piano

John Lill's rare talent emerged at an early age - he gave his first piano recital at the age of nine. At eighteen he performed Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto under Sir Adrian Boult, and made his much-acclaimed London debut playing Beethoven's Emperor Concerto at the Royal Festival Hall. His success was reflected in major prizes and awards, including the most coveted of these, the Moscow International Tchaikovsky Competition, which led to engagements with major orchestras throughout the world, working with conductors such as Barbirolli, Jochum, Ozawa, Svetlanov and Rozhdestvensky. International demand has brought John Lill to over forty coutries, both as a recitalist and as a soloist with the majority of the world's leading orchestras. He has performed in the United States, the Soviet Union, the Far East and Australasia, and plays regularly in all the European capitals. He is a frequent visitor to the States, where he has appeared at the Hollywood Bowl, and worked with orchestras such as the Baltimore Symphony, the Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras, the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Temirkanov at Tanglewood and the New York Philharmonic, as well as adjudicating at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.
John Lill is a regular artist at the BBC Proms, and frequently works with Simon Rattle and the CBSO, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Scottish National and the major London orchestras. He has toured the UK with a number of orchestras, including the LSO (with Fruhbeck de Burgos) and has toured abroad with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Jerzy Maksymiuk to West Germany and Canada.
John Lill has an extensive repertoire, including more than sixty concertos, and is recognised in particular as a leading interpreter of Beethoven. He lives in London, and in 1978 was awarded the O.B.E. for his services to music.