Igor Levit

Pianist Igor Levit first gained widespread attention during the 2010s through a series of significant prizes and distinctions, among them selection as a BBC New Generation Artist. Much of his ascent can be traced to daring choices of repertoire both on stage and in the studio.

Born on March 10, 1987, in the Soviet Russian city of Gorky, now known as Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, Levit grew up with a mother who worked as an opera rehearsal pianist. He began piano lessons at age three and, only a year later, appeared in public with a Beethoven Ecossaise. By six he had already performed a Handel keyboard concerto alongside the Philharmonic Orchestra of Nizhny Novgorod. The family relocated to Hannover, Germany, in 1995; four years after that he spent a year at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, before entering the Hochschule für Musik, Drama und Medien in Hannover. He studied there until 2010 under Bernd Goetzke, Karl-Heinz Kammerling, and Matti Raekallio. Even prior to completing his degree, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung declared him among the outstanding pianists of the century. He received the Luitpold Prize for young artists at the Kissinger Sommer Festival in Bad Kissingen, Germany, and held the BBC New Generation Artist title from 2011 to 2013. In 2013 Sony Classical engaged him, and his first release presented Beethoven’s late piano sonatas.

Levit has appeared as concerto soloist with the Düsseldorf Symphony, the London Philharmonic, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. He has performed solo recitals throughout Europe, the United States, and Israel, and has collaborated in chamber settings with cellist Mischa Maisky, violinist Sergei Krylov, and violist Kim Kashkashian, among others. After speaking out against anti-Semitism on social media, he received a death threat in 2019; that same year his alma mater, the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover, appointed him to its faculty. He has remained with Sony Classical, releasing further recordings devoted to Beethoven, Bach, and Frederic Rzewski. He has increasingly favored albums built around musico-philosophical ideas, among them Life in 2018 and Encounter in 2020. His 2022 album Tristan examined the implications of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, an exploration followed in 2023 by the double album Fantasia.