Leonardo Hilsdorf, Piano

Biography

Originally from São Paulo, Brazil, Leonardo Hilsdorf has performed extensively throughout Europe and South and North America. He is currently a young-soloist-in-residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium, under the tutelage of Maria João Pires. Leonardo won first prize and the special prize at the San Sebastián International Piano Competition in Spain, as well as the Nadia and Lili Boulanger Prize in Paris. In Brazil he has won awards from the Young Artists of Brasil, Villa-Lobos, and BNDES Competitions. As a first-prize winner of the first Grieg International Piano Competition, Leonardo appeared as a soloist and chamber musician at many Norwegian festivals, including the Grieg Festival in Oslo and Grieg in Bergen. He recorded the second concertos of Saint-Saëns and Rachmaninoff for radio and television stations in Brazil and has appeared as soloist with numerous Brazilian orchestras. Festival appearances include Kneisel Hall, Villecroze in France, Orford in Canada, Felbach and Emil Gilels in Germany, and Campos do Jordao in Brazil. After receiving his bachelor’s degree from the University of São Paulo in the class of Eduardo Monteiro, he was accepted, at age 20, to the master’s program at the New England Conservatory, where he studied with Wha-Kyung Byun and Russell Sherman, graduating with academic honors. In 2014 he earned the Concertist Diplome of the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris A. Cortot, under the direction of Guigla Katsarava.