Alexander Ullman, BBC Symphony Orchestra & Andrew Litton
Biography Alexander Ullman, BBC Symphony Orchestra & Andrew Litton
Alexander Ullman
Praised for his subtle interpretations and refined technical mastery, British pianist Alexander Ullman has impressed audiences and critics worldwide with his deep understanding of the scores he interprets, his elegant touch and crystalline phrasing.
Recent highlights include performances with the NCPA Orchestra in Beijing (Liszt Piano Concerto No. 2 under Markus Stenz) and Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona (Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 under Josep Vicent), as well as his debuts at Lucerne Piano Festival and Montreal Chamber Music Festival. He also made his debut with the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra and performed recitals in Germany (Munich, Bayreuth, Weimar and Berlin), Austria (Wiener Konzerthaus and Liszt Festival Raiding), Hungary (Liszt Academy Budapest), the Netherlands, Poland, Italy, Georgia, Mexico, Korea (Seoul Arts Center) and his native UK.
The 21/22 season sees his evening recital debut at Wigmore Hall and debuts with Münchner Symphoniker (under Joseph Bastian) and Hong Kong Sinfonietta (under Ola Rudner), both with Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 3. He returns to the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra (Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 under Dennis Russell Davies) and Klavierfestival Ruhr, and performs a recital at Hong Kong’s Premiere Performances.
In Spring 2019, Alexander’s first album on Rubicon, featuring Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite, Prokofiev’s Six Pieces from Cinderella, as well as Stravinsky’s Petrushka and Firebird suites, received rave reviews. In Spring 2022 the label will release a second album, featuring Piano Concerto Nos. 1 and 2 by Franz Liszt with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Andrew Litton, coupled with his Piano Sonata in b minor.
The winner of the 2017 International Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Utrecht, Alexander has appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Budapest Radio Orchestra and Korean Symphony Orchestra, as well as the New Jersey, Fort Worth and Montreal symphonies, working with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Giancarlo Guerrero, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Valentin Uryupin and Cristian Măcelaru. In the 17/18 season he closed the Lille Piano(s) Festival with Orchestre de Picardie under Jean-Claude Casadesus.
He has performed at Wigmore Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall (London), the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Gewandhaus (Leipzig), Kimmel Center (Philadelphia), Kennedy Center (Washington DC), Seoul Arts Center, Shanghai Oriental Arts Center and the NCPA in Beijing, and has been featured in the Nottingham and Oxford international piano series, on BBC Radio 3, France Musique and MDR Klassik. Chamber music highlights include performances at the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove (UK), Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Germany), the Pablo Casals Festival in Prades (France) and La Jolla Summerfest (US) with performers such as the Dover Quartet, violinists Barnabas Kelemen and Aleksey Semenenko, and cellist Michael Petrov.
Alexander first came to international attention in 2011 after winning the Franz Liszt International Piano Competition in Budapest. From 2014 to 2017 he was represented by Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT). Born in London, in 1991, he studied at the Purcell School, the Curtis Institute and the Royal College of Music, completing his Artist Diploma as the “Benjamin Britten Piano Fellow” in 2017 (awarded by the Philip Loubser Foundation). His teachers have included William Fong, Leon Fleisher, Ignat Solzhenitsyn, Robert McDonald, Dmitri Alexeev, Ian Jones and Elisso Virsaladze.
