Columbia Artists Management will take on the North American representation of pianist Louis Schwizgebel.
The Swiss-Chinese pianist has played with renowned orchestras across Europe, and is steadily taking on more engagements with North American ensembles.
The 27-year-old artist was named a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist in 2013, and won second prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2012. In 2005 he won second prize at the Concours de Genève, aged just 17.
Schwizgebel has also won praise from the critics, with the guardian calling him a ‘pianist with a profound gift’, and Anthony Tommasini writing in The New York Times: ‘His passagework was lithe and sparkling; his phrasing lucid and shapely … an insightful musician in action who brought out complexities in inner voices and gave an extra nudge to the crucial rhythmic accents.’
Schwizgebel has performed with the London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, Vienna Symphony, Orchestre National de Lyon, and the Orchestra of St Luke’s (NYC) with conductors such as Fabio Luisi, Marek Janowski, Leonard Slatkin, Louis Langrée and Vasily Petrenko.
He has played at major festivals including the Progetto Martha Argerich and Menuhin Festival Gstaad, and in 2013 was one of five pianists invited to music perform a Beethoven concerto at the Verbier Festival with Charles Dutoit.
This summer the Geneva-born pianist made his debut at the BBC Proms, playing Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No 1 with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, which was broadcast on the BBC.
Highlights of Schwizgebel’s 2014-15 season include debuts with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Detroit Symphony. He will also tour Europe with Thierry Fischer and the Animato Foundation Orchestra, including dates at Smetana Hall in Prague, Salzburg Mozarteum and Vienna Konzerthaus.
Photo: Louis Schwizgebel © Marco Borrgreve