Since winning the “Newcomer of the Year” ECHO Klassik award in 2013 for his first Sony Classical recital disc, German pianist Alexander Krichel has established himself as one of the most promising young pianists of today. His third album for Sony, featuring Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto with the Dresden Philharmonic and Michael Sanderling, has been released in 2015 to great critical acclaim, and 2017 will see the release of a disc featuring works by Maurice Ravel.

Alexander has already made debuts with orchestras such as the Bamberger Symphoniker under Jonathan Nott, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra under Antonio Méndez, as well as the Tokyo and Kyoto Symphony Orchestras and the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa. In 2016/17, he returns to the Bremer Philharmoniker under Michael Schønwandt, and will renew his collaboration with the Polish Chamber Philharmonic for concerts in Germany, and further ahead will make his debut with the Dortmunder Philharmoniker and Gabriel Feltz. Other recent concerto appearances include Orquesta Filarmónica Nacional de Venezuela, Royal Camerata Romania, and Festival Strings Lucerne. He works with conductors such as Andrew Litton, Wojciech Rajski, Taijiro Imori, Ruben Gazarian and Johannes Wildner.

A busy recitalist, this season’s debuts include the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and the Klavier Festival Ruhr for a performance at the Robert Schumann Saal in Düsseldorf. Further ahead, he will return to the Philharmonie Essen, make his debut at the Beethovenfest Bonn as well as at the Hyogo Performing Arts Centre in Japan. Recent solo performances have taken him to venues such as such as Konzerthaus and Philharmonie Berlin, Herkulessaal and Prinzregententheater Munich, Philharmonie Cologne, Tonhalle Zurich and Düsseldorf, Konzerthaus Vienna, Liederhalle Stuttgart, and he has given solo performances in Mainz, Bremen, Kiel and Leverkusen. He has also appeared in recital in Tokyo and Bucharest. Festival appearances include the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Rheingau Music Festival, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, Schwetzinger Festspiele, Kissinger Sommer, Piano aux Jacobins, L’ésprit du Piano Bordeaux and Ocean Sun Music Festival.

Alexander is a keen chamber musician and has collaborated with French horn player Felix Klieser, with whom he has toured Germany last season. Other chamber music partners include Albrecht Mayer, Klaus Florian Vogt, Gabriel Schwabe and Kirill Troussov.

Born in Hamburg in 1989, Alexander Krichel started to play the piano at the age of six and became a pre student at Hamburg University of Music and Drama at the age of 15. From 2007, he continued his studies with the legendary Vladimir Krainev at Hanover University of Music and Drama. He has also studied with Dmitri Alexeev at Royal College of Music in London, completing his studies in June 2016 with distinction. From 2012 to 2015, Alexander was part of the stART programme for young artists at Bayer Kultur. He is also a scholarship holder of Oscar and Vera Ritter Foundation, Berenberg Bank Foundation, PE Förderungen and the Otto group.