L
ars Vogt first came to public attention when he won second prize at the 1990 Leeds International Piano Competition. During his prestigious career Lars has performed with many of the world’s great orchestras including the Royal Concertgebouw, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, London Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, NHK Symphony and Orchestre de Paris. He has collaborated with prestigious conductors including Sir Simon Rattle, Mariss Jansons, Claudio Abbado and Andris Nelsons. His special relationship with the Berlin Philharmonic has continued with regular collaborations following his appointment as their first ever ‘Pianist in Residence’ in 2003/4.
In Europe he performs concertos with the Orchestre Philharmonique de France, Vienna Symphony, Czech Philharmonic and Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, as well as the London Philharmonic under Yannick NézetSéguin both in London and on tour in Germany. In North America he appears with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and with Boston Symphony Orchestra under their new Music Director Andris Nelsons. He is a key soloist in the Deutsche kammerphilharmonie Bremen’s Brahms cycle conducted by Paavo Järvi with performances of the Brahms piano concertos at the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York and the Tanglewood and Lanaudière Festivals, as well as in Tokyo’s Opera City Hall. He returns to Japan at the end of the season for concerts with the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra under Daniel Harding.
Lars Vogt enjoys a high profile as a chamber musician, and in June 1998 he founded his own chamber festival in the village of Heimbach near Cologne. Known as ‘Spannungen’, the concerts take place in an art-nouveau hydroelectric power station. Its huge success has been marked by the release of ten live recordings on EMI. Lars Vogt is a passionate advocate of making music an essential life force in the community. In 2005 he established a major educational programme ‘Rhapsody in School’ which brings his colleagues to schools across Germany and Austria, thereby connecting children with inspiring world-class musicians. Lars Vogt is also an accomplished and enthusiastic teacher, and in 2013 was appointed Professor of Piano at the Hannover Conservatory of Music, succeeding Karl-Heinz Kämmerling, his former teacher and close friend. As an EMI recording artist Lars Vogt made fifteen discs for the label, including the Hindemith Kammermusik No.2 with the Berlin Philharmonic/ Claudio Abbado and the Schumann, Grieg and first two Beethoven Concertos with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra/Sir Simon Rattle, who has described him as “one of the most extraordinary musicians of any age group that I have had the fortune to be associated with”. Recent recordings include solo Schubert for CAvi-music and Mozart concertos with the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra for Oehms, a solo Liszt and Schumann disc on the Berlin Classics label and Mozart sonatas with Christian Tetzlaff for Ondine.
Place of birth: Düren, Germany Who is your orchestral hero/ine? Carlos Kleiber, Simon Rattle What would be your three desert island discs? Strauss Four Last Songs (Jessye Norman), Bach cantatas (Ton Koopman), Mozart (too hard to decide on anything… can I take the box of complete works?), Rachmaninov Vespers Do you play any other instruments? I used to play the clarinet as a kid, not anymore… What is your favourite concerto? Too hard to decide. Maybe ultimately Mozart K595? But they are all so incredible! Beethoven Four... Schumann… Brahms...