The highly-esteemed French-Canadian pianist Louis Lortie possesses a unique interpretative voice spanning a broad range of repertoire, with the “combination of total spontaneity and meditated ripeness that only great pianists have” (The Times) In demand on five continents, the 2017-18 season includes European concerto appearances with the MDR Sinfonieorchester, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, BBC Philharmonic, Hungarian National Philharmonic, Bern Symphony Orchestra, as well as a recording with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Andrew Davis. North American concerto engagements include the Dallas Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Utah Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Detroit Symphony and Toronto Symphony, while in Asia he returns to the Shanghai Symphony where he is Artist in Residence, and he will also perform with the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan. Equally active as a recitalist, Louis Lortie appears regularly at the Wigmore Hall, including two recitals in 2017-18. The season also includes performances at the Liszt Festival in Raiding, the Chicago Symphony Recital Series, and an extensive recital tour in Italy. Lortie is also co-founder and Artistic Director of the LacMus International Festival on Lake Como, and a Master in Residence at The Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel of Brussels. Together with fellow pianist Hélène Mercier, as the Lortie-Mercier duo, he has also shed new light on the repertoire for four hands and two pianos both in the concert hall and on several best-selling recordings. He has a prolific discography of over 45 highly acclaimed recordings for Chandos, covering repertoire from Mozart to Stravinsky. Louis Lortie studied in Montreal with Yvonne Hubert (a pupil of the legendary Alfred Cortot), in Vienna with Beethoven specialist Dieter Weber, and subsequently with Schnabel disciple Leon Fleisher. In 1984, he won First Prize in the Busoni Competition and was also prizewinner at the Leeds Competition. Louis Lortie is a citizen of Canada and has homes in Montreal, Berlin and Italy.