Hélène Tysman

October 2, 2019, 12:15 pm

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2010 Darmstadt International Chopin Competition First Prize winner Hélène Tysman performs a program of works by Bach, Debussy, Chopin, and Ravel for this Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert broadcast.


Hailed by The New York Times as a pianist of “warm touch and dreamy sensibility”, praised by The Daily Telegraph as “poetic” and qualified by the Süddeutsche Zeitung as a “pianistic cosmos”, Hélène Tysman’s recitals make a deep impression on her audience and professionals who describe it as “dazzling” (BBC News Magazine), “mixing excitement with eloquence”  (Gramophone Chopin Express), “of rare fineness and intensity” (Télérama) and “extraordinary interpretation” (Le Figaro).

In 2010, after winning the First Prize of Darmstadt International Chopin Competition (Germany) as well as being Prizewinner of many international piano competitions in China, United-States, England and Germany, she first broke out onto the international music scene as a finalist and Distinction Prize Winner of the prestigious International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw.

Her Chopin renditions have been acclaimed by critics and audiences all over the world and have led to releases of two all-Chopin recordings for OehmsClassics/Naxos which won the « Maestro » Award of the french magazine Pianiste. She also recorded two chamber music CDs for the French label Indésens Records with the soloists of Orchestre de Paris.

Invited by the Deutschlandradio Kultur Berlin to record a new release, she signs a Ravel program called “From Antics to demons” for Klarthe/Harmoni Mundi which received the French Arthèmes Classiques Award and was described by the press and the radio as: “the exquisite sensitiveness of the pianist as well as her extreme precision inhabits the CD end to end”, “Nothing is conspicuous and yet all is here”, “a great artist and a great CD”…

In recent years, she has extended her artistic horizons with original collaborations including literature and theater with celebrated French actors such as Francis Huster, Michel Robin, Jacques Gamblin and Dominique Pinon. This season, she is touring with the famous Percussions Claviers de Lyon Ensemble with a program called “Transatlantic Ravel” mixing percussion and piano.

Graduated from Paris Conservatory as well as Hamburg and Weimar Hochschule, she has studied with Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Oleg Maisenberg and Grigory Gruzman.

Performing internationally (Asia, South of America, United-States, Canada, Russia, North Africa, Middle east, Europe), she is regularly invited to various radio and TV programs and has performed in recital as well as a soloist with orchestras which include the Riverside symphony orchestra, Minnesota symphony orchestra, BBC national orchestra of Wales, Wroclaw NFM orchestra, Warsaw philharmonic orchestra, Warsaw Radio Symphony, Pasdeloup orchestra, on the most worldwide renowned scenes such as New York Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, Paris Philharmonie Hall and Salle Gaveau, Frankfurt Alte Oper, Hamburg laeiszhalle, Shanghai City Theater, Cairo Opera, among others.

Last season, she toured in Poland for recitals as well as a soloist with conductors Marzena Diakun, Daniel Raiskin and Michał Klauza and gave a piano master class at the Katowice Academy.

French press (La Lettre du Musicien) described her interpretation of Bach: “without concessions, lively and in a perfect diction. A real originality of thought, a real joy of playing and a superior intelligence at the service of writing, harmony and plans.” A Bach CD will be released this season.

Hélène Tysman is a laureate of the Georges Cziffra Foundation in Senlis (France) as well as the Chopin Foundation in Hanover and is recipient of the US Anna-Maria Moggio Foundation for the Arts and the Myra Hess Concerts Series. She is a Steinway Spirio recording artist.

Biography courtesy of IMF Chicago.

  • La cathédrale engloutie, by Claude Debussy

  • Partita No. 1 in B-Flat Major, BWV 825, by Johann Sebastian Bach
    Praeludium
    Allemande
    Corrente
    Sarabande
    Menuet I & II
    Gigue

  • Pavane pour une infante défunte, by Maurice Ravel 

  • Ballade No. 3, Op. 47 in A-Flat Major, by Frédéric Chopin