Garrick Ohlsson

Since his triumph as winner of the 1970 Chopin International Piano Competition, pianist Garrick Ohlsson has established himself worldwide as a musician of magisterial interpretive and technical prowess. Although long regarded as one of the world’s leading exponents of the music of Frédéric Chopin, Ohlsson commands an enormous repertoire that ranges over the entire piano literature, encompassing more than 80 concertos. 

For the first time in its history, the Chopin Competition invited an American to chair the jury, and Ohlsson assumed that role for the 19th incarnation in October 2025. He then returns as guest soloist to The Cleveland Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra, followed in the winter by a duo tour with violist Richard O’Neill, which takes them from Los Angeles to Charlottesville, St. Paul, and New York’s 92nd Street Y. In solo recital, he can be heard in Vienna, London, Philadelphia, and Chicago. 

Collaborations with the Cleveland, Emerson, Tokyo, and Takács string quartets have led to decades of touring and recordings. His solo recordings are available on the British label Hyperion and in the US on Bridge Records. Both Brahms concertos and Tchaikovsky’s Second Piano Concerto have been released on live recordings with the Melbourne and Sydney symphonies on their own labels, and Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto was recorded with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Robert Spano. 

A native of White Plains, New York, Ohlsson began piano studies at age 8 at the Westchester Conservatory of Music, and at 13, he entered The Juilliard School. He was awarded the Avery Fisher Prize in 1994 and the University Musical Society Distinguished Artist Award in Ann Arbor in 1998. He is the 2014 recipient of the Jean Gimbel Lane Prize in Piano Performance from the Northwestern University Bienen School of Music, and in August 2018, the Polish Deputy Culture Minister awarded him the Gloria Artis Gold Medal for cultural merit. 

Ohlsson is a Steinway Artist and makes his home in San Francisco.