Robert Levin

Robert Levin has performed throughout the world, appearing with the orchestras of Atlanta, the BBC, Berlin, Birmingham, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, La Scala, Los Angeles, Montreal, Philadelphia, Toronto and Vienna on the Steinway, and with the Academy of Ancient Music, La Chambre Philharmonique, the English Baroque Soloists, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique on early keyboards. Renowned for his improvised cadenzas in Classical period repertoire, Robert Levin has made recordings of a wide range of repertoire for AAM, Archiv, Bridge, CRI, Decca/Oiseau-Lyre, Deutsche Grammophon, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, ECM, Hänssler Classic, Hyperion, Klavierfestival Ruhr, New York Philomusica, Philips and SONY Classical, including Bach’s complete harpsichord concertos with Helmuth Rilling, the six English Suites and both books of the Well-Tempered Clavier (Hänssler Edition Bachakademie); a Mozart concerto cycle with Christopher Hogwood, Richard Egarr, Bojan Čičić, Laurence Cummings, and the Academy of Ancient Music (Decca/Oiseau Lyre and AAM); the Beethoven concertos with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique (Archiv); the complete piano music of Dutilleux (ECM; Bernard Rands’ Preludes and Impromptu (Bridge); and the complete Beethoven sonatas and variations for fortepiano and ’cello with Steven Isserlis (Hyperion). Recent releases include the six Bach Partitas (Grand Prix International du Disque)(Le Palais des Dégustateurs), the complete Schubert piano trios with Noah Bendix-Balgley and Peter Wiley (Le Palais des Dégustateurs), and the complete Mozart sonatas on Mozart’s Walter piano (ECM) (Diapason d’Or de l’Année).

A passionate advocate of new music, Robert Levin has commissioned and premiered numerous works, among them Denissov’s Paysage au clair de lune, Joshua Feinberg’s Veils (2001), the Second Piano Sonata of John Harbison (2003), the Piano Concerto Chiavi in mano of Yehudi Wyner (2005, Pulitzer-Prize 2006), the Préludes of Bernard Rands (2007), the Piano Concerto by Thomas Oboe Lee (2007) and Träume by Hans Peter Türk (2014).

He has a long partnership with violist Kim Kashkashian and appears frequently with his wife, pianist Ya-Fei Chuang, in duo recitals and with orchestra, and with cellist Steven Isserlis. A noted Mozart scholar, Mr. Levin’s completions of Mozart’s Requiem, C-minor Mass, and other unfinished works have been recorded and performed throughout the world. From 2002 to 2024 he was President of the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition (Leipzig, Germany). He was awarded the Bach Medal of the City of Leipzig in 2018 and the Golden Mozart Medal by the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum in Salzburg in 2024. From 1993 to 2013 he was Dwight P. Robinson, Jr. Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University and is presently Visiting Professor at The Juilliard School and the Sibelius Academy, and International Chair at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. From 2007 to 2016 he was Artistic Director of the Sarasota Music Festival. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.