A paragon of virtuosity and musical excellence, Maurizio Pollini has been a regular guest artist at all of the music centers of Europe, America and Japan, where he has performed with numerous orchestras under the direction of such conductors as Karl Böhm, Sergiu Celibidache, Herbert von Karajan, Pierre Boulez, Claudio Abbado, Wolfgang Sawallisch and Riccardo Muti. Maurizio Pollini regularly tours the United States, Europe and Asia with performances in Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London, Milan, Munich, New York, Paris, Philadelphia, Salzburg, San Francisco, Tokyo and Vienna.

Mr Pollini’s repertoire ranges from Bach to the most daring contemporary music and includes the cycle of the complete Beethoven Sonatas, which he has performed at Carnegie Hall, La Scala in Milan, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Philharmonie in Berlin, the Salle Pleyel in Paris and London Royal Festival Hall. In 1987, he was presented the Vienna Philharmonic Honorary Ring on the occasion of his performances of the complete Beethoven Piano Concertos with orchestra at Carnegie Hall.

During the 1999/2000 and 2000/01 seasons, Maurizio Pollini devoted an extensive portion of his musical activities to Perspepctives: Maurizio Pollini at Carnegie Hall. On this innovative series of nearly thirty concerts across the two seasons, Mr Pollini examined pivotal musical works from the 14th century through the present day. Throughout this series, Mr Pollini collaborated with many of the world’s most distinguished soloists, conductors, chamber ensembles and orchestras. A similar project has started in Vienna and will last until June 2007.

As an exclusive recording artist for Deutsche Grammophon, Mr Pollini has an extensive discography which includes works by Bartó'k, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Debussy, Liszt, Mozart, Prokofiev, Schubert, Schumann and Stravinsky. In addition, his recordings of the complete piano works by Schönberg and of works by Berg, Webern, Nono, Manzoni, Boulez and Stockhausen are a testament to his great passion for contemporary music. He has received awards in France, Germany, Belgium, England and the United States for his numerous recordings, including the Edison Prize, the Grand Prix International du Disque, Deutscher Schallplattenpreis, Prix Caecilia Bruxelles, Grammy Award for Best Soloist with Orchestra and Gramophone Award for Best instrumental Record. Awarded the 1996 International Music Prize of the Ernst von Siemens Foundation, Maurizio Pollini was praised by the Foundation as an “ingenious interpreter and inquisitive explorer” of classic and contemporary music and a “no compromise music intellectual”.

In 2002 Mr Pollini celebrated his 60th birthday and a 30-year artistic collaboration with Deutsche Grammophon with the release of the 13-CD Maurizio Pollini Edition, presenting a wide ranging series of the artist’s classic recordings. DG also released Pollini’s recording of Schumann Kreisleriana in April 2002.

On April 8, 2003 Mr Pollini’s long-awaited recording of the Beethoven Piano Sonatas cycle was released. The first release was a double CD set featuring his powerful interpretation of the Appassionata Sonata plus a fascinating series of shorter works - all recorded for the first time by the Italian master. The second CD offered a remarkable bonus: two alternative live recordings of the Appassionata and the F sharp major Sonata op. 78, taken from a recital given at Vienna Musikverein in June 2002.

In 2004 Mr Pollini was Artiste Etoile at the Lucerne Festival, where he performed under the baton of Claudio Abbado and Pierre Boulez with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and Lucerne Festival Academy. In September 2005 Mr Pollini’s latest Deutsche Grammophon was released: Chopin Nocturnes.

Maurizio Pollini was born in Milan in 1942 and studied with Carlo Lonati and Carlo Vidusso. In 1960, at the age of 18, he was awarded first prize at the International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. He currently resides with his family in Milan.