Freddy Kempf has become one of the most important young artists of today performing to sell-out audiences all over the world. He has built a unique reputation both as an explosive and physical performer as well as serious, sensitive and profoundly musical artist.

Born in London in 1977 Freddy began piano lessons at the young age of four. He came to national prominence in 1992 when he won the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition following a memorable performance of Rachmaninov Paganini Variations. It was perhaps his award of third prize in the 1998 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow that established his international career. For him NOT to have won the first prize provoked protests from the audience and an outcry in the Russian press, which proclaimed him "the hero of the competition" and his unprecedented popularity with Russian audiences has been reflected in several sold-out concerts and numerous television broadcasts

Many international debuts followed including engagements at the Munich Gasteig, the Alter Oper in Frankfurt, Berlin’s Philharmonie & Konzerthaus, New York’s 92nd Street “Y”, Chicago’s Grant Park festival, Vienna’s Musikverein & Konzerthaus, Salzburg’s Mozarteum and the Concertgebouw amongst others. His immense versatility as a performer has since taken him all over the world from opening the Shanghai Concert Hall in October 2004, to recording Chopin’s Etudes for DVD in a Chateau close to Paris for BBC Television and acclaimed Beethoven Concerto Cycles in London and Sydney.

Freddy has worked with the world’s leading orchestras and acclaimed conductors such as the Philharmonia Orchestra under Sir Andrew Davis and Kurt Sanderling, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Daniele Gatti and Matthias Bamert, City of Birmingham Symphony/Oramo, La Scala Philharmonic/Chailly, St. Petersburg Phihlharmonic/Termirkanov, Russian State Symphony/Sinaisky, Dresden Symphony/Herbig, Seattle Symphony/Schwarz, San Francisco Symphony/Tortelier, Philadelphia Orchestra/Sawallisch, NHK Symphony/Simonov, European Union Youth Orchestra/Ashkenazy, Prague Philharmonia/Belahovek, Rotterdam Philharmonic/Viotti, the Residentie Orkest/Jaarvi, Vancouver Symphony/Tovey, Luxembourg Philharmonic/Krivine and the Sao Paolo State Symphony/Kalmar.

Current and forthcoming season highlights include engagements with the  CBSO,  Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra  and  Moscow  Radio  Symphony

Orchestra with Vladimir Fedoseyev, a return visit to the Sao Paulo Symphony performing Tchaikovsky’s 2nd concerto, the RPO/Slatkin, Lithuanian National Symphony including a tour of all the major UK concert halls, Augsburg Philharmonic, Oregon Symphony, Cagliari Orchestra performing both of Liszt’s piano concerti, the Bergen Philharmonic to perform and record Prokofiev’s 2nd and 3rd Piano Concerti, St. Petersburg Philharmonic and will return to both Australia and Japan and south-east Asia for major tours.

A committed recitalist, Freddy has built up dedicated audiences world-wide appearing at London’s Barbican Centre, Birmingham’s Symphony Hall, Munich’s Herkulessaal, Hamburg’s Musikhalle, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, Osaka’s Symphony Hall, Grande Teatro di Verona, Milan Conservatorio’s Sala Verdi, Zurich’s Tonhalle, Moscow’s Great Hall of the Conservatoire and St. Petersburg’s Philharmonic Hall. Current highlights include return visits to Moscow, Birmingham’s Symphony Hall, the Seoul Concert Hall, the Sala Verdi Milan performing Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata.

Freddy records exclusively for BIS Records, for whom he has recorded recital discs of Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, Schumann and his most recent release includes the works of Mussorgsky, Ravel and Balakirev. This recording has already been received with critical acclaim being chosen as Editor’s Choice in the Gramophone Magazine and Geoffrey Norris writes for the Telegraph that:

Freddy Kempf here tackles three giants of the piano repertoire and conquers them with spirit and imagination. Armed with all the necessary technical resources, he is able to bring colour and well-defined character to Pictures from an Exhibition, revealing how ingeniously Mussorgsky exploited the piano's palette of sound without the aid of all those later arrangers who chose to embellish it with orchestral timbres.

One of those was Ravel, whose Gaspard de la nuit here glows, ripples and, in "Scarbo", bristles with malevolence. The bravura of Balakirev's Islamey is brilliant.

Freddy’s next release will be an all Prokofiev disc including piano sonatas and concerti with the Bergen Philharmonic and Andrew Litton.

Milano-Teatro alla Scala 20 Nov. 2006

Orchestra Filarmonica della  Scala  dir.Riccardo Chailly

IL GIORNALE  - Chailly esalta la "sua"Filarmonica

“...il Concerto di Grieg.. Freddy Kempf,il giovane inglese già spesso in

città grazie ad Hans Fazzari, è un altro personaggio imprevedibile. Un

cavallo di razza... impeto gioioso e inquieto. Comunque travolgente.

Applausi”

Elsa Airoldi