In October 2005, Rafal Blechacz was the uncontested winner of the 15th Frédéric Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw, Poland. (A second prize was not awarded.) In addition to the Grand Prize, Mr. Blechacz won all the special prizes of the Competition: the Polish Radio Prize for best mazurka performance, the Frédéric Chopin Society Prize for the best performance of a polonaise, the National Philharmonic of Poland Prize for the best concerto performance, and the Krystian Zimerman-sponsored prize for the best performance of a sonata.
Born in 1985 in Nakło nad Notecią, Poland, Mr. Blechacz began his piano studies at age five, and continued his musical education at the Artur Rubinstein State School of Music in Bydgoszcz. In May 2007, he graduated from the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz, where he studied with Professor Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń.
Since then, the artist has won many prestigious prizes and awards at music festivals and competitions in his native Poland and worldwide. Among these are: 1st Prize and Grand Prix of the 13th All-Poland Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in Gorzów Wielokpolski (1996), 2nd Prize of the 5th International Young Pianists Competition, “Artur Rubinstein in memoriam” in Bydgoszcz (2002), and 2nd Prize of the 5th International Piano Competition in Hamamatsu, Japan (2003), an award he shared with Alexandr Kobrin, as a 1st Prize was not awarded. In July 2010 he received the prestigious Premio Internazionale Accademia Musicale Chigiana (Siena, Italy), awarded annually by an international jury of music critics to young musicians for superb artistic achievements.
The 2005 victory in Warsaw opened the doors of the most famous concert halls of the world, including Royal Festival Hall and Wigmore Hall in London, Berlin’s Philharmonie, the Herkulessaal in Munich, Alte Oper in Frankfurt/Main, Liederhalle in Stuttgart, Konzerthaus in Vienna, Tonhalle in Zurich, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Salle Pleyel in Paris, Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, and Avery Fisher Hall in New York. Mr. Blechacz has also performed at the most renowned music festivals of the world, such as Salzburg, Verbier, La Roque-d’Anthéron, Klavier Festival Ruhr and the Gilmore Festival. He has received critical acclaim and praise from audiences for his performances with orchestras under the direction of such noted conductors as Valery Gergiev, Mikhail Pletnev, Charles Dutoit, David Zinman, Marek Janowski and Jerzy Maksymiuk.
On May 29, 2006, Rafal Blechacz signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon, thus becoming only the second Polish artist, after Krystian Zimerman, to be signed under the prestigious label. His first recording for DG, of the complete Chopin Preludes, was released in Europe in October 2007. It attained Platinum Record status in Poland within the second week of its release, and was awarded with the German Echo Klassik and French Diapason D’or. This recording was followed by a second disc on the DG label of sonatas by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven in October 2008. Upon the huge success of this second CD, as well as the critical acclaim of the first, the record label released under its “yellow label” in 2009 both Chopin Concerti, with Mr. Blechacz performing with the Concertgebouw Orchestra under the baton of Jerzy Semkow. The recording, honoring the Chopin anniversary year of 2010, received a “Best of the Year” honor from Gramophone magazine, and the Preis der Deutschen Schalplattenkritik, a prestigious recognition from Germany’s music critics. The recording quickly achieved double platinum status in Poland.
