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Peter Jablonski

Born in the south of Sweden to Swedish and Polish parents, Peter showed an early talent for music when he started playing the drums at the age of five and piano at six. Rapid development on the drums led to performances at some major festivals and venues including the `Village Vanguard` in New York aged nine and with musicians such as Buddy Rich and Thad Jones. Peter even received praise from the legendary Miles Davis.

 

Meanwhile, Peter’s interest developed in the classical piano repertoire which led to his first solo performance aged eleven and his debut with orchestra, playing Mozart’s piano concerto in G, K.453 the following year. At this time he was accepted to the Malmo Academy of Music to pursue studies in piano and percussion and by the time of his graduation he was invited to perform Beethoven’s Concerto No.1 with the Swedish, Danish and Polish radio orchestras.

 

Further studies in piano and conducting followed at the Royal College of Music in London when, in his final year, Peter was heard by Vladimir Ashkenazy who invited him to record his debut disc for Decca with Ashkenazy conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London.

 

Two years later he again joined forces with Ashkenazy and the RPO, this time playing Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No.1, Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini and Lutoslawski’s Paganini Rhapsody (a work he studies with the composer). This CD went on to win the coveted Edison award for ‘best concerto recording’.

 

Other recordings include the complete concertos of Tchaikovsky conducted by Peter Maag and Charles Dutoit, the Scriabin concerto and Prometheus with Vladimir Ashkenazy, the complete sonatas by Prokofiev and several other discs with solo works by Chopin, Liszt, Mussorgsky, Grieg and the cello sonatas of Prokofiev & Shostakovich with Ralph Kirshbaum. His most recent recording is of Mazurkas by Chopin, Szymanowski and Maciejewski for the Altara label. A live performance of the Gershwin Second Rhapsody was issued in March 2010 by the BBC Music Magazine.

 

Since his debut in Washington DC in 1992 and at the Royal Festival Hall in London 1993, Peter has worked with many of the worlds finest orchestras including the Philadelphia, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philharmonia, BBC Symphony, DSO Berlin, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Kirov, Tonhalle Zurich, Orchestre Nationale de France, La Scala Philharmonic and NHK Tokyo conducted by, among others, Riccardo Chailly, Myung-Whun Chung, Charles Dutoit, Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniele Gatti, Kurt Sanderling and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

 

Some highlights from the 12/13 season includes recitals in Tokyo (Suntory Hall) and (Opera City), Osaka (Symphony Hall), Stockholm (Berwaldhallen), Munich, Brussels and Seoul.

 

Performances of Lutoslawskis Piano Concerto in Helsinki with the Finnish Radio Symphony and in Warsaw with the Warsaw Philharmonic for the Lutoslawski Centenary Celebrations. A tour of the UK with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, performances in Japan with the Hyogo PAC Orchestra and his South American Conducting debut in Mexico City with the Mexican Radio Philharmonic in a programme of Mozart, Prokofieff and Strauss.

 

Always a passionate chamber musician Peter is the Artistic director of the Karlskrona Chamber Music Festival in the south of Sweden.

 

Peter received the Orpheus award for his world premier performance of Wojciech Kilar’s Piano Concerto at the Warsaw Autumn Festival, a work written for and dedicated to him. In 2005 he was awarded the Litteris et Artibus medal by the King of Sweden.

 

Peter lives with his family (and cat) in London.