A series of competition wins and internationally acclaimed recordings have announced Gustav Piekut as a young pianist to be reckoned with. Still a student, his playing has been praised for its technique, intelligence, grace and power by critics in Denmark and abroad.
He recently released his second album, ‘Towards the Flame’, on Naxos Records. The international music magazine Pizzicato awarded a ‘Supersonic Pizzicato’ with the words: “Only a true musical poet, a real sound artist can play like this” and BBC Music Magazine remarked: ”Piekut hits the sweet spot between technical accuracy and off-the-cuff brillance.” The recording was nominated for the International Classical Music Awards in the category Solo Album.
Highlights of the 2022-23 season include soloist appearences with Copenhagen Phil in Rachmaninov’s 3rd Piano Concerto, Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional de Colombia and Odense Symfoniorkester in Brahms’ 2nd Piano Concerto, State Orchestra of Slovakia Kosice in Prokofiev’s 3rd Piano Concerto, Orchester Theater Magdeburg in Beethoven’s 5th Piano Concerto, Aarhus Symfoniorkester in Chopin’s 2nd Piano Concerto, as well as several recitals, festival and chamber music appearences in Denmark and abroad.
Gustav Piekut was born in 1995 and grew up in and around Kolding on Denmark’s mainland peninsular Jutland and made his debut as a soloist with the South Jutland Symphony Orchestra at the age of 12. Two years later he embarked upon his first solo recital tour, and he has since appeared as a concerto soloist with renowned orchestras and given recitals at the Kissinger Sommer Festival, Hindsgavl Festival, Weilburger Schloßkonzerte, the Black Diamond in Copenhagen and many other venues.
After studies at the Gradus Piano School with Martin Lysholm Jepsen, Gustav traveled to Germany where he was a pupil of Prof. Klaus Hellwig at the University of the Arts, Berlin. During his studies in Berlin, he was a stipendiate of Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes. After that, he embarked on his postgraduate studies with Prof. Jens Elvekjær. He took further lessons with Prof. Julia Mustonen-Dahlkvist.
In 2021, Piekut was a prizewinner at the Kissinger KlavierOlymp; in 2020, he won the P2 Talent Prize by the Danish Broadcast Corporation. He was a recipient of a 2018 Sonning Talent Award. He won the Audience Prize, Carl Nielsen Prize and the EMCY Prize at the Aarhus International Piano Competition in 2017, and was a prizewinner at the Dublin International Piano Competition in 2015, the International Piano Forum in Poland in 2016 and at Astana Piano Passion in 2013.
Piekut’s debut recording took on one of the touchstones of the piano literature, Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations. ‘The young Dane proves himself worthy of the risk’, wrote the British magazine Pianist; ‘[he] provides the listener with an increasingly compelling journey through Beethoven’s challenging landscape.’ The recording won the Artistry Prize of the Association of Music Reviewers in Denmark.
