Freddy Kempf is one of today’s most successful pianists, performing to sell-out audiences all over the world. He has built a unique reputation both as an explosive and physical performer not afraid to take risks as well as a serious, sensitive and profoundly musical artist.

It was perhaps his award of third prize in the 1998 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow that rapidly established his international career. That he did not win 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 since then has been reflected in several sold-out concerts and numerous television broadcasts.

Many international debuts followed, and led to collaborations with such eminent ensembles and conductors as the Philharmonia Orchestra under Sir Andrew Davis and Kurt Sanderling, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Daniele Gatti, La Scala Philharmonic under Chailly, the St Petersburg Philharmonic under Temirkanov, Philadelphia Orchestra under Sawallisch, City of Birmingham Symphony under Oramo, and the Prague Philharmonia under Belohlavek. As a recitalist, Freddy Kempf has appeared at some of the world’s most important venues including Zurich’s Tonhalle, the Symphony Hall in Osaka and St. Petersburg’s Philharmonic Hall.

Freddy Kempf records exclusively for BIS Records, his most recent release being Prokofiev’s Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 3 with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Andrew Litton, which was nominated for the prestigious Gramophone Concerto award: “Kempf is joyfully exuberant, flashing through every savage challenge with the assurance and instinct of a born virtuoso.”