Persons

Freddy Kempf

piano

Biography

Born in London in 1977, Freddy made his concerto debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of 8, and, maintaining a strong link with the orchestra ever since, joined them for his conducting debut in 2011. Last season, Freddy play/directed the ensemble in a complete cycle of Beethoven’s piano concertos, giving 11 performances in many of the UK’s most significant venues.

Freddy came to national prominence in 1992 when he won the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition. In 1998, his award of third, rather than first, prize in the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow provoked protests from the audience and an outcry in the Russian press, which proclaimed him "the hero of the competition". His international career was rapidly established and his unprecedented popularity with Russian audiences has since been reflected in numerous sold-out concerts and television broadcasts.

Many international debuts followed, with collaborations including such eminent ensembles and conductors as the Philharmonia Orchestra under Sir Andrew Davis and Kurt Sanderling, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Daniele Gatti, Matthias Bamert and Charles Dutoit, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic/Petrenko, La Scala Philharmonic/Chailly, St Petersburg Philharmonic/Temirkanov, Russian State Symphony/Sinaisky, Dresden Symphony/Herbig, Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra/Ivor Bolton, Seattle Symphony/Schwarz, San Francisco Symphony/Tortelier, Philadelphia Orchestra/Sawallisch, NHK Symphony/Simonov, European Union Youth Orchestra/Ashkenazy, Prague Philharmonia/Belohlavek, the Residentie Orkest/Neeme Jaarvi and Luxembourg Philharmonic/Krivine.

A committed recitalist, Freddy has appeared on many of the world’s most important stages including, most recently, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire, the Berlin Konzerthaus, Milan’s Conservatorio’s Sala Verdi, the Sociedad Filharmónica Bilbao, London’s Cadogan Hall, Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, the ABC Southbank in Brisbane and Sydney’s City Hall.

Freddy records exclusively for BIS Records. In 2010, his recording of Prokofiev’s Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 3 with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Andrew Litton was nominated for the prestigious Gramophone Concerto Award and described by the associated magazine as “A masterful Prokofievian pair”. This highly successful collaboration was followed by a recording of Gershwin’s works for piano and orchestra, released in 2012 and described in the press as “beautiful, stylish, light, and elegant… magnificent”. Meanwhile Freddy’s solo recital disc of Rachmaninov, Bach/Busoni, Ravel and Stravinsky, released in 2011, was praised by BBC Music Magazine for its “wonderful delicate playing and fine sense of style”. In July 2010, Freddy took up an invitation to participate in a recording project featuring a new work ‘Genesis Symphony’ by Tolga Kashif, performed with the London Symphony Orchestra.

Nearest concerts

15
December, 2023
7:00 pm
Grand Hall:
191186, St. Petersburg, Mikhailovskaya st., 2
+7 (812) 240-01-80, +7 (812) 240-01-00
Small Hall:
191011, St. Petersburg, Nevsky av., 30
+7 (812) 240-01-70
Write us:
Box office opening hours: 11 am to 8 pm (on concerts days to 8.30 pm)
Lunch Break: 3 pm to 4 pm
Box office opening hours: from 11 am to 7 pm (on concerts days to 7.30 pm)
Lunch Break: 3 pm to 4 pm
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