Martin Helmchen

Martin Helmchen, who was born in Berlin in 1982, studied with Galina Iwanzowa at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in his native city and with Arie Vardi in Hanover. William Grant Naboré and Alfred Brendel also number among his important mentors. He won the Concours Clara Haskil in 2001 and, in 2006, the Credit Suisse Young Artist Award, which included the opportunity to appear as a soloist with the Vienna Philharmonic at LUCERNE FESTIVAL. Helmchen has since performed with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Orchestre de Paris, the London Philharmonic, and the Cleveland and the Boston Symphony Orchestras, working with such conductors as Herbert Blomstedt, Christoph von Dohnányi, Philippe Herreweghe, and Andris Nelsons. Among his engagements in the 2018-19 season were appearances in Scandinavia with the Oslo Philharmonic, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. He additionally made his debut with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai, and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg. Helmchen is also intensively involved in the field of chamber music. He performs regularly with soprano Juliane Banse; baritone Matthias Goerne; clarinetist Sabine Meyer; violinists Veronika Eberle, Christian Tetzlaff, Antje Weithaas, and Carolin Widmann; and with his wife, the cellist Marie-Elisabeth Hecker. With Frank Peter Zimmermann he has played Beethoven’s violin sonatas in many cities. He also maintains a close relationship with the Schubertiade in Vorarlberg. Martin Helmchen, whose most recent recording is an account of Messiaen’s Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus, that was released in the spring 2019, has taught as Associate Professor of Chamber Music at the Kronberg Academy since 2010.

First appearance at LUCERNE FESTIVAL on 22 August 2006 as part of the Debut series, in a program of works by Bach, Messiaen, and Schumann.

August 2019