Gilles Vonsattel

Swiss-born American pianist Gilles Vonsattel is an artist of extraordinary versatility and originality. He is the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award, and winner of the Naumburg and Geneva competitions.  Vonsattel made his Boston Symphony (Tanglewood) and San Francisco Symphony debuts, and subsequently performed recitals and chamber music at Ravinia, Tokyo’s Musashino Hall, Wigmore Hall, Bravo! Vail, Music@Menlo, the Gilmore Festival, the Lucerne Festival, and the Munich Gasteig. His New York solo recital was hailed as “tightly conceived and passionately performed…a study in intensity” by The New York Times. 

The 2021-22 season brings Mr. Vonsattel in performance with Camerata Pacifica, South Carolina Philharmonic, Arizona Friends of Music, the Orchestra Now at Carnegie Hall and Chamber Music Society at Lincoln Center at Alice Tully Hall in New York City. His recent orchestral engagement highlights include Chicago Symphony, Florida Orchestra, Huntsville Symphony, South Carolina Philharmonic, Santa Barbara Symphony Orchestra, North Carolina Symphony, Montreal Symphony (Canada), Staatorchester Hamburg (Germany), Gothenburg Symphony (Sweden) and Bern Symphony Orchestra (Switzerland).

Mr. Vonsattel has additionally performed with the Spoleto Festival USA, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Cooperstown Chamber Music Festival, SummerFest La Jolla, Classical Tahoe Festival, Swiss Chamber Concerts, Zeughaus Konzerte, at Schwetzinger Festspiele and in Memmingen (Germany). In collaborative recitals he performed with cellist Adolfo Gutierrez Arenas at Theatro Liceo (Spain) and Paul Watkins at the Maestro Foundation in Santa Monica. He also tours extensively with Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center internationally in venues such as Alice Tully Hall in New York and Wigmore Hall in London.

Other recent projects include Bernstsein’s “Age of Anxiety” with the Munich Philharmonic and Kent Nagano, Berg’s Kammerkonzert with the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, a tour with Jörg Widmann and the Irish Chamber Orchestra, Mozart concerti with the Vancouver Symphony and Florida Orchestra, and performances at Seoul’s LG Arts Centre and at the Beijing Modern Music Festival.

In 2021, Mr. Vonsattel released a recording of Strauss’s Panathenäenzug and Leimer’s Piano Concerto (Left-Hand), the first recording of this piece released in nearly seventy years. Mr. Vonsattel’s 2015 release, titled Shadowlines, includes the music of Scarlatti, Webern, Messiaen, Debussy, and George Benjamin (whose composition gives the collection its title) received great acclaim, with The New York Times calling it a “mesmerizing” album in which Vonsattel traced an “intelligent and imaginative path” throughout. A 2014 release, Heinz Holliger: Romancendres…, with cellist Daniel Haefliger, on GENUIN/Artist Consort received a 5/5 from FonoForum and international critical praise, while his 2011 recording for the Honens/Naxos label of music by Debussy, Honegger, Holliger, and Ravel was named one of Time Out New York’s classical albums of the year.

He has made guest appearances with the Warsaw Philharmonic, Calgary Philharmonic, Edmonton Symphony, l’Orchestre Symphonique du Québec, Boston Pops, Nashville Symphony, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Staatskapelle Halle, and L’orchestre de chambre de Genève and has been reengaged by the San Francisco Symphony. Chamber partners include such luminaries as James Ehnes, Frank Huang, Nicolas Altstaedt, David Shifrin, David Finckel, Stefan Jackiw, Jörg Widmann, Gary Hoffman, Carter Brey, Anthony Marwood, Paul Neubauer, Paul Watkins, Phil Setzer, Emmanuel Pahud, Karen Gomyo, David Jolley, Ida Kavafian, and the Swiss Chamber Soloists. He has appeared in concert with the Pacifica, Orion, Ebène, Danish, Daedalus, Escher, and Borromeo Quartets. Committed to contemporary works, Vonsattel has performed in numerous premieres in the United States and Europe, and has worked closely with notable composers such as Jörg Widmann, Heinz Holliger, and George Benjamin. With Violinst Frank Huang and cellist David Requiro, Mr. Vonsattel performs as the Naumburg Trio. With Violinst Ida Kavafian and Horn player David Jolley, he performs as Trio Valtorna.

A former member of CMS Two, Mr. Vonsattel received his bachelor’s degree in political science and economics from Columbia University and his master’s degree from The Juilliard School. He is on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Gilles Vonsattel is a Steinway Artist.

May 16th, 2022: New York Times Reviews Vonsattel At Carnegie Hall
- The New York Times

August 27, 2021: Naumeburg Trio Pianist, Gilles Vonsattel, Releases ‘Kurt Leimer: 3. Klavierkonzert (Linke Hand)/ Richard Strauss: Panathenaenzug Op. 74’
- Spotify

May 27, 2021: The New York Times Promotes Gilles Vonsattel’s Mozart Piano Concert No. 21 in their ‘10 Classiscal Concerts to Stream in June’
- The New York Times

REVIEW: A REVELATORY ‘HAMMERKLAVIER’ LAUNCHES CAMERATA PACIFICA’S NEW SEASON AND ‘BEETHOVEN 32’ PROJECT
“Vonsattel held the audience in rapt silence”
- Truman C. Wang, Classical Voice

REVIEW: GROSSMAN ENSEMBLE OPENS UCHICAGO PRESENTS SEASON WITH BRACING TRIBUTE TO KNUSSEN AND BENJAMIN
“Vonsattel brought a gentle impressionistic touch to the brief opening prologue, which was immediately blasted away by a chromatic burst of spiky virtuosity at the high end of the piano. Vonsattel’s concentrated playing fully conveyed the strange yet compelling landscape of this score.”
- Lawrence A. Johnson, Chicago Classical Review

Orchestral Repertoire

Bach
Concerto in d minor, BWV 1052
Concerto in d minor for three keyboards, BWV 1063
Concerto in C major for three keyboards, BWV 1064
Concerto in a minor for four keyboards, BWV 1065

Bartók
Concerto No. 2 in G Major, BB101, SZ.95

Beach, Amy
Piano Concerto

Beethoven
Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15
Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major, Op. 19
Concerto No. 3 in c minor, Op. 37
Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major, “Emperor," Op. 73

Benjamin, George (b. 1960)
Duet for piano and orchestra (2008)

Berg
Kammerkonzert - Chamber Concerto for Piano and Violin with 13 Wind Instruments

Bernstein
Symphony No. 2: The Age of Anxiety for Piano and Orchestra

Brahms
Concerto No. 1 in d minor, Op. 15

Britten, Benjamin
Diversions, Op. 21 for piano (left hand) and orchestra

Chavez
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra

Gershwin
Concerto in F
Rhapsody in Blue

Grieg
Concerto in a minor, Op. 16

Leimer, Kurt (1920-1974, German)
Piano Concerto No. 2

Liszt
Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major, S. 124

Messiaen
Turangalîla-Symphonie

Mozart
Concerto No. 6 in B-flat Major, K. 238
Concerto No. 9 in E-flat Major, K. 271
Concerto No. 12 in A Major, K. 414
Concerto No. 20 in d minor, K 466
Concerto No. 21 in C Major, KV 467
Concerto No. 23 in A Major, KV 488
Concerto No. 27 in B-flat Major, KV 595

Prokofiev
Concerto No. 1 in D-Flat Major, Op. 10
Concerto No. 3 in C Major, Op. 26

Rachmaninov
Concerto No. 1, Op. 1 in f-sharp minor (revised version)
Concerto No. 2, Op. 18 in c minor
Concerto No. 3 in d minor, Op. 30
Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini, Op. 43

Ravel
Concerto in G Major

Schumann
Concerto in a minor, Op. 54

Strauss, Richard
Burleske in D minor for piano and orchestra
Panathenäenzug: Sinfonische Etüden in Form einer Passacaglia for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 74

Shostakovich
Concerto in c minor for Piano, Trumpet, and String Orchestra, Op. 35

*Updated August 2022