Steven Osborne

From exhilarating concertos to delicate chamber works, from mainstream Beethoven, Mozart and Brahms to the rarefied worlds of Messiaen, Tippett and Britten, Steven Osborne is at home with the widest range of styles and his carefully crafted recital programmes and idiomatic approach to contrasting works are both publicly and critically acclaimed.

Concerto performances take Steven Osborne to orchestras all over the world including recent visits to the NHK Symphony, Berlin Symphony, Deutsches Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Munich Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony, Bergen Philharmonic, Residentie Orkest, Australian Chamber Orchestra, and the NDR Sinfonieorchester Hannover. With these orchestras he has enjoyed collaborations with conductors including Christoph von Dohnanyi, Alan Gilbert, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sir Charles Mackerras, Ludovik Morlot, Leif Segerstam, Andrew Litton, Ingo Metzmacher and Jukka-Pekka Saraste.

In the UK he works regularly with the major orchestras, especially with the Philharmonia, City of Birmingham Symphony and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestras. His concerts are frequently broadcast by the BBC and he performs every year at the Wigmore Hall. He has made seven appearances at the Proms, most recently in July 2007, receiving unanimous praise from critics for his performance of the Britten Piano Concerto which he subsequently recorded for Hyperion. 

Steven Osborne is a renowned recitalist and has performed in many of the world’s prestigious venues including the Konzerthaus Vienna, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Philharmonie Berlin, Musikhalle Hamburg, Palais des Beaux Arts Brussels, Suntory Hall Tokyo, Kennedy Center Washington and Carnegie Hall. 

Amongst the highlights of 2009/10, Osborne will perform with the Dallas Symphony/ Denève, Finnish Radio Symphony/Lintu, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo/Kreizberg, Orchestre de Lausanne, Danish Radio Symphony/Morlot, CBSO/Vedernikov and a European tour of Schubert duets with Paul Lewis including dates at Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw and Rotterdam. Last season Osborne breathed new life into well-known classics with his performances and recording of the Russian greats, including Shostakovich Piano Concerto No.1 with the NHK Symphony, Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No.2 with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Stravinsky Concerto for Piano and Winds with the London Philharmonic Orchestra/Jurowski at the Aldeburgh Festival.

Steven Osborne records regularly for Hyperion. His CD of Messiaen’s complete Vingt regards sur l’enfant Jésus was nominated for both a Gramophone Award and a Schallplattenpreis in Germany. Other recordings include Debussy’s complete Préludes, solo works by Alkan, Liszt Harmonies poetiques et religieuses, and solo works by Kapustin which was also nominated for a Schallplattenpreis. Recently released to critical acclaim has been a double CD of works by Tippett (nominated for a BBC Music Magazine Award), a CD of Britten’s works for piano and orchestra, and his much awaited and widely admired recording of Rachmaninoff’s Twenty-Four Preludes, which was chosen as Editor’s Choice in Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine, International Record Review, Musical Opinion and Daily Telegraph.

Born in Scotland in 1971, Steven Osborne studied with Richard Beauchamp at St Mary's Music School in Edinburgh and Renna Kellaway at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. He won first prize at the Naumburg International Piano Competition (New York) and the Clara Haskil Competition.