ROBERT EDWARD THIES, PIANIST

A pianist of “unerring, warm-toned refinement, revealing judicious glimmers of power,” [Los Angeles Times]

Robert Edward Thies is an artist renowned for his consummate musicianship and poetic temperament.

He first captured worldwide attention in 1995 when he won the Gold Medal at the Second International Prokofiev Competition in St. Petersburg, Russia. With this victory, Thies became the only American pianist to win first prize in a Russian piano competition since Van Cliburn’s famed triumph in Moscow in 1958.

Praised for his “thoughtful and intensely moving interpretations” Thies enjoys a diverse career as an orchestral soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. His concerto repertoire includes over thirty-five works, spanning 200 years. He demonstrated exceptional versatility when in one season alone he performed thirteen different concertos, garnering consistent critical acclaim. He has appeared with such orchestras as the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic, Liepāja Symphony (Latvia), Mexico City Philharmonic, the National Symphony of Mexico, Auckland Philharmonia (New Zealand), Fort Worth Symphony, Pasadena Symphony, and the Naples Philharmonic. His concerts have been broadcast throughout the United States, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Bolivia, Hungary, Mexico, and New Zealand.

Mr. Thies is a frequent recitalist in the United States and abroad, and he is known for his genuine interpretations of intriguing and delicately balanced programs. He made his South American debut in Cochabamba, Bolivia in 2002, and followed this with a European tour. Under the sponsorship of Community Concerts, he completed a forty-city tour of the United States in 2001. In May 1999, he was honored with a special invitation to perform in the Hermitage Theater in St. Petersburg, Russia, built for Empress Catherine the Great.

A dedicated chamber musician, Thies continues to expand his already impressive repertoire and collaborates with many esteemed musicians. While he has appeared with established ensembles like the Blair String Quartet and the New Hollywood String Quartet, he also co-founded the Trio de Medici and The Thies Consort. The Consort performs a wide range of works of varying instrumentation and size, thus allowing for innovative and unique programming with musical continuity based on a style, composer, or other concept.

Thies’s “grace and unsurpassed lyricism” are in high demand at festivals and special celebrations. In 2002, in conjunction with the Hollywood premiere of Roman Polanski’s film The Pianist, he performed Wladislaw Szpilman’s Concertino for Piano and Orchestra with the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony. That same year Thies earned national recognition for his collaboration with noted cultural historian and author, Joseph Horowitz, in the Pacific Symphony’s Dvořák in America festival. To commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Arnold Schoenberg’s death, Thies was invited to Mexico City’s Palacio de Bellas Artes in 2001 to perform the composer’s seldom-heard Piano Concerto with the National Symphony of Mexico. During the fall of 1997 Mr. Thies worked alongside distinguished Polish composer Henryk Górecki in the United States premiere of his Sonata for Piano. Thies has performed at the music festivals of Ravinia, Aspen, Sedona, Breckenridge, Savannah Onstage, Cape May, and Music Academy of the West.

In Los Angeles, Thies has worked and recorded with many of the top studio musicians, ranging from film composer Lalo Schifrin and jazz artist David Benoit, to the Grammy-winning Angeles String Quartet. Thies’s recordings include the Schubert “Trout” Quintet with members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Brahms and Beethoven sonatas with cellist Cécilia Tsan, and the Dohnányi Sextet with hornist Richard Todd, clarinetist Gary Gray and members of the New Hollywood String Quartet. He also recorded and performs often with Hungarian flutist Boglárka Kiss. And finally, this year will mark the release of a live recording of Mr. Thies in recital.

As a teacher, Thies appears often as a lecturer, adjudicator, coach, and master class teacher across the globe. In 2003, he accepted an invitation to join the faculty of the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria, to work beside his former teacher, Harold Heiberg, an authority on German art song. There Mr. Thies has been coaching singers and pianists for a Liederabend—the culminating event of the six-week festival.

Born in New Jersey in 1971, Thies now resides in Los Angeles. His teachers have included Robert Turner and Daniel Pollack, both protégés of the legendary Russian pedagogue Madame Rosina Lhevinne, and the great pianist Josef Lhevinne. Mr. Thies is a Steinway artist.

For more information, visit Robert Edward Thies's website

Revised 01/27/05