Paul Lewis

Biography

Paul Lewis is one of today’s foremost interpreters of the Central European piano repertoire. His performances and his harmonia mundi recordings of Beethoven and Schubert receive universal critical acclaim. Winner of numerous international awards and accolades, he was named Royal Philharmonic Society Instrumentalist of the Year; he has received two Edison Awards, three Gramophone awards, a Diapason d’Or de l’Année, a South Bank Show Classical Music Award; and honorary degrees from Liverpool, Edge Hill, and Southampton universities; and he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2016 Queen’s Birthday Honours.
The leading orchestras he works with include the Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, London Symphony, the Philharmonia, Bavarian Radio Symphony, NHK Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, and Leipzig Gewandhaus. His close relationship with the Boston Symphony Orchestra led to his selection as 2020 Koussevitzky Artist at Tanglewood.
With his natural affinity for the music of Beethoven, Paul Lewis took part in the BBC’s three-part documentary “Being Beethoven” and performed that composer’s piano concerto cycle over three concerts at Tanglewood in summer 2022 and then in Boston in 2023 with Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony. He has now performed the cycle all over the world, becoming the first pianist to play the complete cycle in a single BBC Proms season (2010). In May 2025, he performed the cycle with the Oslo Philharmonic and Eivind Aadland.
Between 2022 and 2025, Paul Lewis embarked on an exploration of Schubert, presenting four programmes of the composer’s completed sonatas at some 40 venues around the world.
In March 2025, he gave the world premiere of Thomas Larcher’s Piano Sonata in Oviedo, Spain, and he is giving the work’s regional premieres in Austria, Czech Republic, Holland, Italy, Singapore, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the USA.
In May 2025, Paul Lewis became the first non-American pianist to chair the jury of The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.
Beyond the many award-winning recordings of Beethoven (complete piano sonatas and concertos, the Bagatelles, Diabelli Variations) and Schubert (sonatas, the three great song cycles together with Mark Padmore), his extensive discography with harmonia mundi also demonstrates the characteristic depth of his approach in Romantic repertoire such as Schumann (Fantasy Op.17), Mussorgsky (Pictures at an Exhibition), Brahms (Piano Concerto No.1, Ballades Op.10, late piano works Opp.116–119), and Liszt (Sonata in B minor and late piano pieces).
In chamber music, he works closely with tenor Mark Padmore in lied recitals around the world, and he is co-Artistic Director of Midsummer Music, an annual chamber music festival held in Buckinghamshire, UK.