Michael Lewin is internationally applauded as one of America’s most abundantly gifted and charismatic concert pianists, performing to acclaim in over 30 countries with orchestras, in recital and as a chamber musician.

Recent concert highlights include the celebration of Liszt's 200th birthday around the world with recital programs entitled “Liszt and his Circle” and orchestral performances of Totentanz and the 1st Piano Concerto, recitals in Canada and at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, performances of Beethoven's 1st and 3rd Concertos and the world premiere of the David Kocsis “Concerto for Piano and Chamber Orchestra.” Other recent performances include his London recital debut at Wigmore Hall (all-Griffes program) and a recital at Oxford University, a country tour of China playing the Liszt Piano Concerto No.1 with the China National Radio and Television Orchestra, and his 13th appearance with the Boston Pops. Summer festival appearances included Holland’s “Peter the Great Festival”, MusicFest Perugia in Italy and the International Keyboard Institute and Festival in New York City. Mr. Lewin now records exclusively for Sono Luminus, following the great success of his first CD for the label entitled "If I Were a Bird." Sono Luminus will release two new compact discs in the next year: “Piano Phantoms" and an all-Debussy disc which will include the Second Book of Préludes.

Commanding a repertoire of 40 piano concertos, Michael Lewin’s international orchestral engagements include the Netherlands Philharmonic, Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Cairo Symphony, Bucharest ‘Enescu’ Philharmonic, Beijing National Radio and Television Orchestra, Filharmónica de Guadalajara, the Thessaloniki State Symphony of Greece, and the Youth Orchestra of the Americas. He has soloed with American orchestras including the Boston Pops, the Symphonies of Phoenix, Indianapolis, Miami, Colorado, Nevada, West Virginia, Puerto Rico, Illinois, North Carolina, Sinfonia da Camera, and the Jupiter Symphony, He has given world premieres of two piano concertos by David Kocsis, the “Concerto for the New Millennium” in 2000 and the "Concerto for Piano and Chamber Orchestra" in 2012. He has performed Gershwin’s "Rhapsody in Blue" over 50 times. He has performed with conductors including Carlos Miguel Prieto, Keith Lockhart, Constantine Orbellian, Anton Kersjes, Theo Alcantara, Sergei Babayan and Hugh Wolff.

Michael Lewin’s career was launched by winning the William Kapell International Competition, the American Pianists Association Fellowship and the Liszt International Piano Competition in the Netherlands. He has been awarded career grants from the Martha Baird Rockefeller Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts and the Aaron Copland Recording Fund.

Mr. Lewin’s discography has received extraordinary critical praise, and reflects the great scope of his musical interests. His newest release is “If I Were a Bird,” a selection of 20 bird-themed pieces, on Sono Luminus, which received a Grammy nomination in the "Producer of the Year" category. Sono Luminus will release two new recordings in the next year, "Piano Phantoms," and an all-Debussy disc. His recording of Gottschalk piano music, “Bamboula!," earned a Boston Herald “Year’s Top 10 Pick”, while the Boston Globe enthused that “Lewin has the chops and the charm for these pieces.” For Naxos he has recorded a best-selling collection of Scarlatti Sonatas and the complete piano music of American composer Charles Tomlinson Griffes in two volumes. Mr. Lewin's recordings on Centaur include “Michael Lewin plays Liszt,” “A Russian Piano Recital”, featuring music of Scriabin, Glazunov and Balakirev, and the four Violin and Piano Sonatas of William Bolcom with violinist Irina Muresanu.

The New York Times wrote of his New York recital debut in Lincoln Center in 1984 that “his immense technique and ability qualify him eminently for success”. Since then, his tours have taken him to New York’s major halls, Boston's Symphony Hall, Pasadena's Ambassador Auditorium, the Library of Congress and National Gallery of Art in Washington, Moscow’s Great Hall, Hong Kong's City Hall Theater, Taipei's National Concert Hall, the Opera Houses of Cairo and Wilmington, the Athens Megaron, Holland’s Muziekcentrum Vredenburg, London’s Wigmore Hall and the Spoleto Festival. Television appearances include a PBS recital performing Schubert’s “Wanderer Fantasy” and Chopin works, hosted by Victor Borge. He has been the featured interview in Clavier and Piano & Keyboard Magazines, and edited piano music of Griffes for C.F.Peters. A Steinway Artist, he was Artistic Director of Steinway’s Gala 150th Anniversary Concert held in 2003 in Boston’s Symphony Hall.

Deeply committed to guiding and nurturing gifted young pianists, Michael Lewin is one of America’s most sought-after teachers. He is a member of the Piano Faculty at The Boston Conservatory, where he also directs the Piano Masters Series, and at Boston University, where he is Visiting Artist in Piano. A native of New York, he studied at the Juilliard School. His own teachers included Leon Fleisher, Irwin Freundlich, Adele Marcus, and Yvonne Lefébure.

photo: Lucy Cobos