Nicolas Namoradze

Nicolas Namoradze is a pianist and composer who came to international attention in 2018 as winner of the Honens International Piano Competition. A Musical America New Artist and BBC Music Magazine Rising Star, he was named Pianist of the Year by the UK Critics' Circle in 2022, and is now an exclusive Ondine recording artist. Born in Tbilisi and raised in Budapest, he serves on the faculty of the CUNY Graduate Center.

Nicolas Namoradze is a visionary pianist and composer known for his innovative artistry. He came to international attention in 2018 upon winning the triennial Honens International Piano Competition in Calgary, Canada, and has since garnered international acclaim for his performances and recordings. A Musical America New Artist, BBC Music Magazine Rising Star and Gramophone One to Watch, he was bestowed the Pianist of the Year Award by the UK Critics’ Circle in 2022. His recordings have received accolades including the Choc de Classica, Instrumental Disc of the Month in BBC Music Magazine, Editor’s Choice in Gramophone and Presto Classical, and a first-place debut in the UK charts for classical instrumental albums. Now an exclusive Ondine recording artist, his first album with the label features Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata and his own solo piano arrangement of the Grosse Fuge.
Highlights of the 2026/27 season include recitals at the Konzerthaus Dortmund, Wigmore Hall, Munich’s Prinzregententheater, Tokyo’s Triphony Hall and Taipei’s National Concert Hall, residencies at the Banff Centre and the Sarasota, Honens and Tonebase Festivals, and a Saint-Saëns concerto recording project with a performance at New York’s Alice Tully Hall. The season also sees major composition premieres, including a co-commission by Wigmore Hall and the BBC, a Schnabel Foundation commission, and the compulsory commissioned work for the Tbilisi International Piano Competition, where he also serves on the jury.

Recent seasons have included recitals at Carnegie Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin, Tokyo Bunka Kaikan and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, residencies with the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Verbier Festival and Dresdner Philharmonie, and concerto performances with the Budapest Festival Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Sinfonieorchester Basel and RAI Symphony Orchestra under conductors including Karina Canellakis, Hans Graf, Jeffrey Kahane, Ken-David Masur and Daniele Rustioni. A recent series of broadcast performances of Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 with Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra was included by medici.tv among nine all-time greatest performances by former piano competition winners.
Born in Tbilisi, Georgia and raised in Budapest, Namoradze studied in Budapest, Vienna, Florence, New York and London with mentors including Emanuel Ax, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Zoltán Kocsis, Matti Raekallio, András Schiff, Eliso Virsaladze and John Corigliano. He now serves on the faculty of the CUNY Graduate Center and deputizes at The Juilliard School.

Nicolas Namoradze is a visionary pianist and composer known for his innovative artistry. He came to international attention in 2018 upon winning the triennial Honens International Piano Competition in Calgary, Canada, and has since garnered international acclaim for his performances and recordings. A Musical America New Artist, BBC Music Magazine Rising Star and Gramophone One to Watch, he was bestowed the Pianist of the Year Award by the UK Critics’ Circle in 2022. His often sold-out recitals around the globe have been met with critical praise, and album releases have received extraordinary accolades, including the Choc de Classica, Record of the Month in Limelight, Instrumental Disc of the Month in BBC Music Magazine, Editor’s Choice in Gramophone, Editor’s Choice in Presto Classical and Critics’ Choice in International Piano, as well as a first-place debut in the UK charts for classical instrumental albums. An exclusive Ondine recording artist, his first album with the label, released in October 2026, is an all-Beethoven album featuring the Hammerklavier Sonata and his own solo piano arrangement of the Grosse Fuge.

The 2026/27 season takes him across North America, Europe and further afield with highlights including a series of recitals at the Konzerthaus Dortmund, recitals at London’s Wigmore Hall, Munich’s Prinzregententheater, Padova’s Palazzo Livano and the Vancouver Annex, highly anticipated returns to Japan and Taiwan for solo recital tours including performances at Tokyo’s Triphony Hall and Taipei’s National Concert Hall, and residencies at the Banff Centre and the Sarasota, Honens and Tonebase Festivals. Orchestral highlights include a Saint-Saëns concerto recording project, with a performance at New York’s Alice Tully Hall. He presents his groundbreaking “Neurorecital” at the Cristofori and Beakerhead Festivals, a project which has garnered extensive coverage including features in the New York Times, Financial Times, BBC Music Magazine, Classic FM, and Radio Classique. The season also sees several major composition premieres, including a co-commission by Wigmore Hall and the BBC premiering at the Wigmore, a Schnabel Foundation commission appearing on a new album on the Sono Luminus label, and the compulsory commissioned work for the Tbilisi International Piano Competition, where he also serves on the jury.

Previous seasons have included acclaimed performances of Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 with Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra, whose broadcast medici.tv included as one of nine all-time greatest performances by former piano competition winners in a “prizewinner to pantheon” lineup and named him among thirty-five pianists in their list of “history’s most celebrated pianists.” Recent acclaim includes five-star reviews in The Telegraph and The Guardian, which described his Royal Festival Hall performance as “ideally laconic and debonair, weighty yet exquisite, and exactingly precise in tone and touch,” while International Piano hailed his Wigmore Hall recital as “unfolding in an opalescent glow, every bar touched with beauty… exultant and never less than technically immaculate.” Additional highlights include residencies with the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Verbier Festival, and Dresdner Philharmonie, recitals at major venues such as Carnegie Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin, Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, and Boston’s Gardner Museum, and concerto performances with the London Philharmonic, Sinfonieorchester Basel, Calgary Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, RAI Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, under conductors including Karina Canellakis, Hans Graf, Jeffrey Kahane, Ken-David Masur, and Daniele Rustioni.

As a composer, Namoradze has received commissions and performances from esteemed artists, ensembles, and festivals including the Chelsea Music Festival, Portland Piano International, Klavier-Festival Ruhr and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, with several album releases on the Steinway & Sons label. He has also scored several film soundtracks, such as Le chant des étoiles, and his works are published by Muse Press. Namoradze is also involved in new directions in performance and audience engagement, informed by his involvement in music-related fields in the cognitive sciences. His doctoral thesis at the CUNY Graduate Center developed mathematical models for aspects of musical perception, winning the Barry Brook Award for dissertation of the year. It is now published by Springer as the book “Ligeti’s Macroharmonies” in the Computational Music Science series. Namoradze presents recital formats that reimagine the concert experience through a range of innovative projects, including lecture-recitals, immersive multimedia performances, and interdisciplinary collaborations with scientific research.

Born in Tbilisi, Georgia and raised in Budapest, Namoradze studied in Budapest, Vienna, Florence, New York and London with mentors including Emanuel Ax, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Zoltán Kocsis, Matti Raekallio, András Schiff and Eliso Virsaladze in piano, and John Corigliano in composition. He now serves on the faculty of the CUNY Graduate Center and deputises at The Juilliard School.