Kristian Bezuidenhout
fortepiano
Classic Mozart

Photograph – Paul Miller
"Bezuidenhout played with vigor, variety and color: extraordinary...and immensely expressive."
The Boston Globe

Kris Bezuidenhout, born in 1979, began his studies in Australia at the age of ten. He has worked with teachers including Rebecca Penneys, Paul O'Dette, Malcolm Bilson, Robert Levin and Arthur Haas and completed his studies summa cum laude at the Eastman School of Music. At 21, he won the prestigious First Prize as well as the Audience Prize in the Bruges Fortepiano Competition (2001), a double honor, this being only the third time the prize has been awarded in the history of the competition.

A native of South Africa, Bezuidenhout is a versatile keyboard player who performs regularly on fortepiano, harpsichord and modern piano in North America, Europe, Great Britain, Australia and Asia. Collaborations have included chamber music with with Giuliano Carmignola, Pieter Wispelwey, Paul O'Dette, Daniel Hope, Malcolm Bilson; concertos with The Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, The Handel and Haydn Society, Concerto Köln, the Dutch Radio Chamber Orchestra, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra under Paul Dyer, and the Orchestra of the 18th Century under Frans Brüggen; and lied recitals with duo-partner Jan Kobow. In November of 2003 the two recorded Die schöne Müllerin for the Canadian label ATMA that was named record of the month at Musicweb International. Other recent recordings include Schubert's Schwanengesang, also with Jan Kobow, and a disc of Bach Concertos with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

Kristian has appeared in the early music festivals of Boston, Bruges, Venice and Utrecht, the West Cork Chamber Music Festival in Ireland, the Brühler Schlosskonzerte in Germany, the Menuhin Festival in Switzerland, the Vermont Mozart Festival and the Poeke Fortepiano Festival in Belgium. He has served as an instructor at the Eastman School of Music, where he teaches fortepiano and 18th Century performance practice. In January 2004 he was a guest on NPR's Performance Today and performed solo fortepiano recitals at Dumbarton Oaks.

To celebrate the Mozart year in 2006, Bezuidenhout appeared with the Orchestra of the 18th Century under Frans Brüggen in a complete performance of the late Piano Concertos. The tour included concerts in Holland, Portugal, Poland and Italy.

His Symphony Hall and Carnegie Hall debuts were met with unanimous critical acclaim – Richard Dyer of the Boston Globe described his performance of Beethoven's Emperor Concerto on an 1825 Graf as "extraordinary and immensely expressive" – and his recording of Mozart solo fortepiano works entitled Sturm und Drang was considered the "most impressive and provocative debut recording in years".

Plans for the future include recitals at the Haydn Festival in Esterhaza, the Venice Festival, the St. Petersburg Early Music Festival and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, concerto performances with the Freiburger Barockorchester and the Orchestra of the 18th century under Frans Brüggen, a tour of Belgium and Poland with Collegium Vocale Gent, and a recording of Lully’s Thésée.