Karim Said

The pianist Karim Said was born in 1988 in Amman, Jordan; his grandfather is a cousin of the Palestinian literary scholar Edward Said, who, together with Daniel Barenboim, founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. Said began studying piano with the composer and pianist Agnes Bashir when he was five. At the age of eight he made his debut in a solo recital, and he was only ten when he gave a public performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C major, K. 467. In September 2000 Said received a scholarship to study at the Purcell School of Music in London; starting in 2007 he studied with Tatiana Sarkissova at the Royal Academy of Music in London, completing master classes there in June 2013. In 2008 he made his debut at the Barbican Centre in London in a concert with the English Chamber Orchestra under Colin Davis; a few months later he performed in Berg’s Chamber Concerto together with Michael and Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra at the BBC Proms. Since then Karim Said has appeared in more than 20 European countries, as well as in the Mideast and Asia. He has won awards at numerous competitions, including the Pro Piano Competition in Bucharest, Gradus ad Parnassum in Kaunas (Lithuania), the Liszt Competition in Weimar, and the Beethoven Intercollegiate Piano Competition in London. The filmmaker Christopher Nupen has made a documentary about his career titled Karim’s Journey, in which he followed the young pianist in performances at the Philharmonie in Berlin, the Salzburg Mozarteum, the Moscow Conservatory, and La Scala in Milan, as well as in Abu Dhabi and Seoul. In the first half of 2013, Karim Said performed three piano concerts completely dedicated to music of the 20th century at the Southbank Centre in London.
Karim Said makes his LUCERNE FESTIVAL debut with this concert.

May 2013