WOLFRAM SCHMITT-LEONARDY (GERMANY)

Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy is one of the leading pianists and teachers of our time. During
his training, he gained formative impressions of the most important musical traditions and
schools of the 19th and 20th centuries. In Germany, he was appointed as full-time professor
at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich in 2010. In 2016, he was offered a
professorship at the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin and in 2017 he was appointed to his
current professorship at the Mannheim University of Music and Performing Arts. In addition
to his work at German music academies, he is also active at other European, Australian and
Asian Universities and Institutes:
 École Normale de Musique de Paris Alfred Cortot (Professeur remplaçant since
2007)
 Talent Music Master Courses University of Music Brescia (2017-2022)
 Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) (deputy professorship 2024)
 Lang Lang Art World Hangzhou (Vice Educational Director since 2019)
 WSL-Academy Durtal (since 2022)
Between 2013 and 2016, he was invited by the Lang Lang International Piano Foundation
New York to work with a selection of outstanding young up-and-coming pianists who were
chosen in worldwide auditions at their Allianz Junior Music Camps in Munich, Barcelona,
Vienna and Warsaw. Since September 2022, he has also been leading a class at the WSL
Piano Academy in France (Durtal), which he founded. In summer 2024, he took over the
direction of the piano department of the Australian National Academy of Music A.N.A.M. in
Melbourne for 2 months and was a guest professor at the Universities of Monash and
Melbourne.
His students have won over 60 awards and prizes in international piano competitions in
Europe, Asia and the USA: including 1 st prize at the International Bach Competition Leipzig
(Germany), 1 st prize at Harbin International Piano Competition (China), 1 st prize at the
International Piano Competition Epinal (France), 1 st prize at the Dinu Lipatti International
Piano Competition (Romania), 1 st Prize at the International Competition in Newport (Wales),
1 st and 2 nd Prize at the Grand Canal International Lang Lang Competition (China).
Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy is one of the most remarkable artist discoveries in the recording
industry today. The ever-growing number of his recordings of works by Beethoven (Sonatas
and Bagatelles), Domenico Scarlatti (Sonatas), Frédéric Chopin (complete recording of all
Sonatas, Ballades, Impromptus and Preludes), Robert Schumann (Symphonic Etudes,
Carnaval, Abegg Variations, Toccata, Nachtstücke, Klavierstücke, Presto Passionato),
Johannes Brahms (complete recording of all variation works), Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
(Variations sérieuses, Kinderstücke, Capriccios, Rondo Capriccioso, Scherzi, Fantasien,
Perpetuum mobile et al. etc.), Warenberg/Rachmaninoff (world premiere recording of Serge
Rachmaninoff's 2nd Symphony). Symphony by Serge Rachmaninoff in a transcription for
piano and orchestra), Dmitri Kabalevsky (Sonatas and Preludes), George Gershwin
(Rhapsody in Blue in 3 different recordings), Pyotr Tchaikovsky (Piano Concerto No. 1 with
the Berlin Symphony Orchestra) and others have received numerous awards such as the
prestigious Editor's Choice Award (Gramophone), Coup de Coeur (Piano), CD-Tipp (ZEIT)
etc., excellent reviews in the international press and outstanding reviews in the international
press (American Record Guide, Fono Forum, BBC Music Magazine, Diapason,
Gramophone, Musicweb International, Piano (GB and F), Klassik heute, Piano News,
Fanfare, Muzyka21 by reviewers such as Peter Cossé, Ingo Harden, Knut Franke, Jed
Distler, Jeremy Siepman, Ates Orga and many more. They describe his interpretations as
“astonishing and exquisite”, “breathtaking”, “electrifying”, “stunningly brilliant and grippingly
independent”. They praise his “interpretative sophistication, depth and originality”, “his

intellectual power, his virtuosity, combined with a classicist's sense of proportion and the
‘liveliness and immediacy of his pianism’. The German encyclopedia “Pianisten Profile”
emphasizes Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy's “artistic authority and singular musical
consistency”. Knut Franke, one of the most important music critics of our time, compared
Schmitt-Leonardy's “sovereign sound culture” (Kabalevsky CD) with Vladimir Horowitz. Piano
News magazine praised his Chopin recordings and compared his playing to Krystian
Zimerman and Grigory Sokolov. Jeremy Nichols wrote in Gramophone that his playing (3
sonatas by Chopin) was on a par with Vladimir Ashkenazy, Leif-Ove Andsnes and Howard
Shelly. Jean-Noël Regnier wrote of Wolfram's latest release (Scarlatti sonatas): “He has his
place alongside the great pianistic references of Zacharias, Meyer, Haskil, Horowitz.” And
last but not least, Jed Distler wrote in Gramophone about his Scarlatti CD for which he
received the Editor's Choice Award: “I dare say that he makes Mikhail Pletnev's breathtaking
recording (Erato, 3/96) sound slightly glib in comparison”. After winning several international
competitions (Serge Rachmaninoff, Walter Gieseking, Carlo Soliva and others), he was
appointed Artist in Residence at the Amiata Piano Festival Italy by Fono Forum magazine, as
well as for their readers' tours in Austria, Germany and Italy, and was voted “Young Artist of
the Year”, launching his international career.
CONCERTS have taken him to renowned concert halls and international festivals, e.g.
Philharmonie Berlin, Philharmonie St. Petersburg, Festival White Nights (Russia), Berliner
Festwochen “Musik des 20. Jahrhunderts”, International Piano Festival Miami, Amiata Piano
Festival, Residenz Munich, Teatro Olimpico Vicenza, Forbidden City Concert Hall Beijing,
concert halls in Tianjin, Hangzhou and Wuhan, Grand Canal Lang Lang International Piano
Festival, International Festival in Perm (Russia), Alte Oper Frankfurt, Kilburn Concert Series
Canada, opera houses in Hanoi and Alexandria, International Piano Festival Malaysia,
Philharmonic halls in Ljubljana, Perm, Timisoara, Brasov, Cluj, Sibiu, Poznan and
Waldenburg, Philharmonie Bangkok, Adrienne Arsht Center of the Arts, International Music
Festival in Kemiö, Rittersaal Mannheim, Festival Musical Durtal, Festival Internacional de
Música Ribadesella. He has performed as a soloist with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic
Orchestra, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, the
Philharmonia Hungarica, the Ljubljana Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonic
Orchestra of Nations and many others.
CHAMBER MUSIC PARTNERS include the Berlin Philharmonic String Quartet
(Philharmonia Quartet Berlin), the Melos Quartet, the Amati Quartet, the Rodin Quartet,
Ingolf Turban (Violin), Pavel Vernikov (Violin), Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt (Cello), Dimitri
Maslennikov (Cello), Guido Schiefen (Cello), Valérie Aimard (Cello), Georg Friedrich
Schenck (Piano) and others.
He gives MASTERCLASSES on all 5 continents, e.g. in Austria (“Konzertverein” Vienna),
Poland (Chopin Institute Warsaw), Russia (Perm Philharmonic Orchestra), France (Chateau
de Mayenne, Paris, Festival International de Musique Dinard and Festival Musical Durtal),
Canada (University of Alberta), China (Conservatory Beijing, University Zhejiang and Grand
Canal Lang Lang International Piano Festival, Lang Lang Art World, South Africa (Cape
Town and University of Stellenbosch), Australia (University Melbourne, Monash University),
Spain (Barcelona), Thailand (Philharmonie Bangkok), Germany (Tonkünstlerverband Bayern,
Philharmonie München (Gasteig), Hochschule für Musik und Theater München, Hochschule
für Musik und Theater Hamburg, Hochschule für Musik Saar and many others. ), Finland (For
the Youth Piano Academy Finland in the International Festival Mänttä), Italy (Amiata Piano
Festival, Talent Music Summer Courses Brescia and Arrigo Pedrollo Conservatory Vicenza),
Philippines (Camerata dell Arte Foundation Manila and International Piano Festival
Opusfest), Malaysia (International Piano Festival Kuala Lumpur), Romania (Mozart Festival
Cluj-Napoca). He also founded the WSL Masterclass, a program for the selection and

promotion of exceptionally talented piano students. His theoretical work “Artistic Piano
Technique” was published in China and is the subject of many of his lecture recitals
worldwide.
Prof. Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy's musical roots are wide-ranging: his first teacher Prof.
Alexander Sellier was a student of the important pianists Walter Gieseking and Edwin
Fischer.
Schmitt-Leonardy worked also regularly with Prof. Vitalij Margulis, who gave him valuable
insights into the traditional Russian piano school. Another teacher who had a great influence
on Schmitt-Leonardy was Prof. Adrian Aeschbacher, himself a student of Arthur Schnabel.
Schmitt-Leonardy's teacher and close friend and advisor Michael Ponti studied with Gilmour
McDonald (assistant to Leopold Godowsky) and Erich Flinsch (student of Liszt's pupil Emil
von Sauer). All of these important musical personalities had a decisive influence on Wolfram
Schmitt-Leonardy's musical development. Musical encounters with György Sebök, Seymour
Bernstein, Jürgen Uhde and Solomon Mikowsky shaped him just as much as his mentors
Alexis Weissenberg, Olli Mustonen, Cyprien Katsaris and Aldo Ciccolini.
Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy is a jury member in numerous International Piano Competitions,
e.g. the renowned International German Piano Award IGPA Frankfurt (Chairman of the jury
since 2011), the International Piano Competition Epinal, the Grand Canal International Lang
Lang Piano Competition & Festival, the Walter Gieseking Competition, the International
Piano Competition Santa Cecilia in Porto, the International Scriabin Competition Grosseto,
the International Piano Competition Thailand, the International Piano Competition
Clavicologne, the International Piano Competition MozARTe, the International Piano
Competition Pietro Argento, the International Piano Competition Campillos and others.
Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy works for the Henle publishing house in Munich and writes
fingerings for their editions (e.g. Schumann Carnaval and Symphonic Etudes, Chopin
Sonatas, Preludes and Ballades). He was chosen to contribute fingerings for the new HENLE
edition of the Haydn sonatas alongside such important pianists as Evgeny Kissin, Yuja
Wang, Marc André Hamelin, Paul Badura-Skoda, Robert Levin, Murray Perahia and others.
He is a “Steinway Artist” and patron of an organization (Weltklassik) that provides a selection
of talented young pianists with 400 recitals every year. He has recently been appointed
President of Global Piano League.