Biography will follow shortly. Kristian Bezuidenhout is one of today’s most notable keyboard artists, equally at home on the fortepiano, the harpsichord and the modern piano. Born in South Africa in 1979, he studied in Australia and at the Eastman School of Music and now lives in London. He first gained international recognition at the age of 21 when he won first prize and the audience prize at the Bruges Fortepiano Competition.
Kristian Bezuidenhout is artistic director of the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and principal guest director of the English Concert. He is also a regular guest with other leading orchestras and ensembles such as Les Arts Florissants, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, the Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and he has directed the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Tafelmusik, Collegium Vocale, Juilliard415 and the Potsdam Chamber Academy from the keyboard, as well as the Dunedin Consort in Bach’s St Matthew Passion.
He has also performed with artists such as John Eliot Gardiner, Philippe Herreweghe, Frans Brüggen, Trevor Pinnock, Giovanni Antonini, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Isabelle Faust, Alina Ibragimova, Carolyn Sampson, Anne Sofie von Otter, Mark Padmore and Matthias Goerne.
Kristian Bezuidenhout’s award-winning discography on harmonia mundi includes the complete keyboard music of Mozart, as well as recent releases such as Schubert’s Winterreise with Mark Padmore, Bach’s sonatas for violin and harpsichord with Isabelle Faust and a recording of Haydn’s piano sonatas.
Highlights of the 2020/21 season included solo performances with the Essen Philharmonic and Richard Egarr, Les Arts Florissants and William Christie, the Basel Chamber Orchestra and Giovanni Antonini, the Orchestre National de France and Emmanuel Krivine and the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and Klaus Mäkelä. His appearances as a director at the keyboard include the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Concerto Copenhagen, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and the English Concert. He has also given solo recitals, continued his close recital partnership with Anne Sofie von Otter and enjoyed new collaborations with VOCES8 and Niek Baar.
