Marc-André Hamelin

Born in Montreal, Quebec, Hamelin began his piano studies at the age of five. His father, a pharmacist who was also an amateur pianist, introduced him to the works of Charles-Valentin Alkan, Leopold Godowsky and Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji when he was still young. He studied at the École de musique Vincent-d'Indy in Montreal with Yvonne Hubert88 notes pour piano solo, Jean-Pierre Thiollet, Neva Ed., 2015, p.54. {{ISBN|978 2 3505 5192 0}} and then at Temple University in Philadelphia with Harvey Wedeen.Harvey Wedeen, 87, Architect of Temple's Piano Department, The Philadelphia Inquirer [https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/20150324_Harvey_Wedeen__87__architect_of_Temple_s_piano_department.html] In 1989, he received the Virginia Parker Prize.Canada Council. [http://www.canadacouncil.ca/prizes/virginia_parker/hd127237793746875000.htm The Virginia Parker Prize Cumulative list of Winners] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718140712/http://www.canadacouncil.ca/prizes/virginia_parker/hd127237793746875000.htm |date=2011-07-18 }}

Hamelin has given recitals in many cities. His festival appearances have included Bad Kissingen, Belfast, Cervantino, La Grange de Meslay, Husum Piano Rarities, Lanaudière, Ravinia, La Roque d’Anthéron, Ruhr Piano, Halifax (Nova Scotia), Singapore Piano, Snape Maltings Proms, Mänttä Music Festival, Turku and Ottawa Strings of the Future, as well as the Chopin Festivals of Bagatelle (Paris), Duszniki and Valldemossa. He appears regularly in both the Wigmore Hall Masterconcert Series and the International Piano Series at London’s South Bank Centre. He plays annually in the Herkulessaal in Munich and has given a series of recitals in Tokyo.

In 2020, he performed with the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts, on a special livestream concert with Violinist Lara St. John and the Ulysses Quartet due to worldwide restrictions related to the Covid 19 Pandemic.{{Cite web |title=Naumburg Orchestral Concerts |url=https://naumburgconcerts.org/ |access-date=2025-03-24 |website=Naumburg Orchestral Concerts |language=en-US}}

Hamelin has recorded a wide variety of composers' music with the Hyperion label. His recording of Leopold Godowsky's complete Studies on Chopin's Études won the 2000 Gramophone Magazine Instrumental Award. He is well known for his attention to lesser-known composers, especially of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (Max Reger's Piano Concerto, Leo Ornstein, Nikolai Roslavets, Georgy Catoire), and for performing works by pianist-composers Sophie-Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatté, Leopold Godowsky, Charles-Valentin Alkan, Kaikhosru Sorabji, Alexander Scriabin, Nikolai Kapustin, Franz Liszt, Nikolai Medtner and Frederic Rzewski.

Hamelin has also composed several works, including a set of piano études in all of the minor keys; completed in 2009, it was published by C. F. Peters, with a recording released on Hyperion. A cycle of seven pieces, Con Intimissimo Sentimento, was published (with a recording by Hamelin) by Ongaku No Tomo Sha; and a transcription of Zequinha de Abreu's Tico-Tico No Fubá has been published by Schott Music. Although the majority of his compositions are for solo piano, he has also written three pieces for player piano (including the comical Circus Galop, Pop Music for Player Piano based upon "Pop Goes the Weasel", and Solfeggietto a cinque, based on a theme by C.P.E. Bach), and several works for other instruments, including Fanfares for three trumpets, published by Presser. His other works are distributed by the Sorabji Archive.

In 1985, Hamelin won the Carnegie Hall International Competition for American Music; he made his recital debut at Carnegie Hall in 1988. In 2004, Hamelin received the international record award in Cannes. He has been made an Officer of the Order of Canada and a Chevalier de l'Ordre national du Québec (National Order of Québec). He has won seven Juno Awards, most recently in 2012 for Classical Album of the Year: Solo or Chamber Ensemble, for his Liszt Piano Sonatas album.{{cite web |title=Marc-André Hamelin |url=https://junoawards.ca/artist-profiles/marc-andre-hamelin/ |website=Juno Awards |access-date=31 January 2019}}

Writing in The New Yorker in 2000, senior critic Alex Ross said: "Hamelin’s legend will grow—right now there is no one like him."{{cite magazine|last1=Ross|first1=Alex|title=Extreme Piano — Playing the unplayable|url=http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=2000-12-18#folio=102|access-date=22 January 2017|magazine=The New Yorker|publisher=Condé Nast|date=18 December 2000}} Later in 2010, Ross added that Hamelin was ranked highly by piano connoisseurs, and "admired for his monstrously brilliant technique and his questing, deep-thinking approach."{{cite magazine| last1=Ross| first1=Alex| title=Uncanny Voices — New CDs of Chopin, Thomas Larcher, and Bach |url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/08/09/uncanny-voices |access-date=22 January 2017| magazine=The New Yorker| publisher=Condé Nast| date=9 August 2010}}

In 2015, Zachary Woolfe, classical music editor of The New York Times, noted Mr. Hamelin's "preternatural clarity and control, qualities that in him don’t preclude sensitivity [or] even poetry".{{cite news|last1=Woolfe|first1=Zakary|title=Review: Marc-André Hamelin Connects Past and Present in Kaye Playhouse Recital|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/21/arts/music/review-marc-andre-hamelin-connects-past-and-present-in-kaye-playhouse-recital.html|access-date=22 January 2017|work=New York Times|date=20 July 2015}}

{{Main|Marc-André Hamelin discography}}

Hamelin's first marriage was to soprano Jody Karin Applebaum. He currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts, with his second wife Cathy Fuller, a pianist and WGBH classical music broadcaster. Hamelin has Type 1 diabetes.{{cite web |title=Amid COVID-19, Touring Musicians Contemplate Future Performances |url=https://www.wbur.org/artery/2020/05/25/covid-19-touring-musicians-contemplate-future-performances |website=wbur |date=25 May 2020 |access-date=27 May 2020}}

• List of classical pianists
• Canadian classical music
• List of people from Montreal
• List of Canadian musicians

{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/marc-andre-hamelin/ Hamelin, Marc-André] entry in Encyclopedia of Music in Canada part of The Canadian Encyclopedia. [https://web.archive.org/web/20110523122229/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=U1ARTU0001511 Archived] at the Wayback Machine.
• [https://ethaniverson.com/interviews/interview-with-marc-andre-hamelin/ Extensive interview] by Ethan Iverson
• [http://www.marcandrehamelin.com/ Official Website]
• [http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/artist_page.asp?name=hamelin Marc-André Hamelin at Hyperion Records]
• [http://www.opus39.co.uk/Discography.htm Complete Discography]
• [http://www.afjarvis.org.uk/mah/mah.htm Discography of Marc-André Hamelin, organized alphabetically by composer in three categories (Solo recordings, Concerto recordings, Other), with month and year of recording (by Frazer Jarvis)]
• [http://www.colbertartists.com/marc-andre-hamelin Marc-André Hamelin at Colbert Artists Management, Inc.]

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Category:1961 births

Category:Canadian male classical pianists

Category:Contemporary classical music performers

Category:Juno Award for Classical Album of the Year – Solo or Chamber Ensemble winners

Category:Knights of the National Order of Quebec

Category:Living people

Category:Officers of the Order of Canada

Category:Musicians from Montreal

Category:20th-century Canadian classical composers

Category:21st-century Canadian classical composers

Category:Canadian male classical composers

Category:20th-century Canadian pianists

Category:21st-century Canadian classical pianists

Category:20th-century Canadian male musicians

Category:21st-century Canadian male musicians

Category:Juno Award for Classical Album of the Year – Large Ensemble or Soloist(s) with Large Ensemble Accompaniment winners