Steven Vanhauwaert - Ferruccio Busoni: L'Énigme (2020)

A native of Belgium, Steven Vanhauwaert was hailed by the Los Angeles Times’ Mark Swed for his “impressive clarity, sense of structure and monster technique.” Since then, Mr. Vanhauwaert has appeared in solo recitals at the world’s leading venues, including the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Segerstrom Hall in Costa Mesa, REDCAT Auditorium, Bovard Auditorium, the Concertgebouw, the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, the Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, Bulgaria Hall in Sofia, and the Shanghai City Theatre. He has appeared with orchestras such as the Pacific Symphony, the Flemish Symphony, the Lviv Philharmonic, USC Symphony, Collegium Instrumentale, Sinfonietta Sofia, the Auburn Symphony, the Reno Chamber Orchestra, Kyiv Kamerata, the International Chamber Orchestra of Puerto Rico, the Peninsula Symphony, and Prima la Musica.

Many of Mr. Vanhauwaert’s performances have been broadcast live on networks such as PBS, K-MZT, K-USC, K-PFK, W-FMT, RTBF, WTV, Radio4, and KLARA. He was also a featured guest in a documentary on creativity for the German/French channel ARTE. He is the co-director of the Unbound Chamber Music Festival in Mammoth Lakes, a 3-week long summer festival featuring guest artists from around the world. He also serves as the Artistic Director for the Second Sundays at Two recital series in Rolling Hills, CA.

Mr. Vanhauwaert is passionate about discovering the less familiar jewels of the classical repertoire and sharing them with his audiences. He has given the West Coast premiere of Messiaen’s Fantaisie for violin and piano in San Francisco and the US premiere of Eric Tanguy’s Piano Trio. He also frequently collaborates with and performs works by today’s leading composers such as Jeremy Cavaterra, György Kurtág, Sean Friar, Magnus Lindberg, Andrew McIntosh, Thomas Adès, Veronika Krausas, Adam Schoenberg, Vera Ivanova, Steve Reich, and Eric Tanguy.

He made his debut for the Piano Spheres concert series in Disney Hall’s Redcat Auditorium, with a program consisting exclusively of 20th and 21st century Etudes for the piano, including two special commissions by composers Eric Tanguy, and Veronika Krausas. He appeared as a soloist at the Walt Disney Concert Hall to premiere Fratello by Magnus Lindberg, written in memory of composer Steven Stucky. He was invited by New York University to perform a series of lectures and performances of the works by Viktor Ullmann, including the monumental seventh piano sonata and the melodrama Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke. He toured with the complete 12 Transcendental Etudes by Franz Liszt and will record them in the upcoming season. He is frequently invited to give guest lecture recitals and masterclasses at universities throughout the world, including Shanghai Conservatory, Beijing University, the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music (Tel Aviv), New York University at Abu Dhabi, the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, Qingdao Central Music School, Dalian University, the Colburn School, the University of Tennessee, the University of Louisiana, Whittier College, Ningbo University, Nanning University, the Jerusalem Music Center, the University of Connecticut, the University of California at Los Angeles, California State University at Long Beach, California Institute of the Arts, Wuxi University, Suzhou University, and Guiyang University.

He is the recipient of the Maurice Lefranc award, the Galiot Prize, and the Grand Prize at the 2004 Los Angeles International Liszt Competition. His discography includes a solo album with works by Schumann, Schubert, Liszt, Chopin, and Debussy; two 4 hand-discs featuring arrangements of Stravinsky’s popular ballets Petrushka and the Le Sacre du Printemps, as well as works by Satie, Ravel, Poulenc and Casella, and a disc with works by composer Lior Rosner for Bridge Records. For Sonarti Records he recorded an album with works by Joseph Woelfl, which received was unanimously praised in the press, made the top 10 lists in several European radio stations, and received 5 diapasons in the French magazine Diapason. For the label Éditions Hortus, he recorded the albums Pensées Intimes (featuring works by Hans Pfitzner, Lili Boulanger, Georges Antoine, and the world premiere recording of the Gallipoli Sonata by F.S. Kelly along with violinist Guillaume Sutre – 5 diapasons), Dispersion (featuring by works by Schulhoff, Casella, Hindemith, Vierne, and the world premiere recording of the piano sonata by Belgian composer Raymond Moulaert), Romance de Guerre (featuring works by Edward Elgar, Philippe Gaubert, Blair Fairchild, and Benjamin Dale, with violinist Ambroise Aubrun), Paris <-> Los Angeles (featuring works by Milhaud, Mozart, and Zeisl with violinist Ambroise Aubrun), and the most recent release: Ferruccio Busoni: l’Énigme (a solo album featuring works by the enigmatic Italian composer).