Julius Drake

The pianist Julius Drake lives in London and specialises in the field of chamber music, working with many of the world’s leading artists, both in recital and on disc.

He appears at all the major music centres: in recent seasons concerts have taken him to the Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, Munich, Schubertiade, and Salzburg Music Festivals; to Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Centre, New York; Concertgebouw, Amsterdam and Philarmonie, Cologne; Châtelet and Musée de Louvre, Paris; La Scala, Milan and Liceu, Barcelona; Musikverein and Konzerthaus, Vienna; and Wigmore Hall and BBC Proms, London.

Julius Drake’s passionate interest in song has led to invitations to devise song series for among others the Wigmore Hall, London, the BBC and the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. A series of song recitals – Julius Drake and Friends – in the historic Middle Temple Hall in London, has featured recitals with many outstanding artists.

He is appointed artistic director of Leeds Lieder in 2009 and the Machynlleth Festival in Wales from 2009 - 2011.

Julius Drake’s many recordings include live recordings from the Wigmore Hall London for the ‘Wigmore Live’ label, award winning recordings with Ian Bostridge for EMI and his recent widely acclaimed series with Gerald Finley for Hyperion for which Barber Songs and then Schumann Heine Lieder have won both the 2008 and 2009 Gramophone Awards.

Highlights in the coming season include a special Birthday Concert hosted for Julius Drake by the Wigmore Hall in London; Schumann duets and quartets with Röschmann, Kirchschlager, Bostridge, Quasthoff and Deutsch at the Schubertiade, in Hamburg, Paris, London and Vienna; recitals in the USA, Canada and Europe with Gerald Finley; recitals at the Edinburgh Festival and in Barcelona, London and Brussels with Bejun Mehta; the first recording in a series of seven for Hyperion of the Complete Songs of Liszt, with the American tenor Matthew Polenzani; recitals at Carnegie Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Wigmore Hall with Alice Coote; and a tour throughout Europe, including visits to the Verbier and Salzburg Festivals, of Wolf’s Spanisches Liederbuch with Ian Bostridge and Angelika Kirchschlager.