Le Concert Olympique
The American pianist, composer, and organist Kit Armstrong is no stranger in Erlangen; perhaps this exceptional artist has already impressed you at a gVe concert, or you have experienced him during the "Fränkischer Sommer" festival. Then you know: A concert with Kit Armstrong is much more than a piano evening. It is a meeting with a free, curious spirit that penetrates music in all its facets and brings it to new light.
Early on, Armstrong was recognized as a prodigy. In addition to his musical talent, his remarkable intellectual versatility became evident. As the youngest student ever admitted to Chapman University of California, he studied composition and physics and transferred to Utah State University at the age of nine to take courses in music, mathematics, biology, and physics. He completed his music studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London with distinction and holds a Master's degree in mathematics.
Whether it's Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, or Liszt: Kit Armstrong manages to present well-known masterpieces so transparently and vividly that it feels as if you are hearing them for the first time. Pay close attention when he presents the iconic Piano Concertos No. 3 and No. 4 by Ludwig van Beethoven, alongside Beethoven specialist Jan Caeyers and the Ensemble Concert Olympique.
Kit Armstrong performs in venues such as the Musikverein in Vienna, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Berliner Philharmonie, the NHK Hall in Tokyo, or the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. He collaborates with the Vienna Philharmonic, the Saxon State Orchestra Dresden, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, and the NHK Symphony Orchestra while working with top conductors like Herbert Blomstedt, Riccardo Chailly, Kent Nagano, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Christian Thielemann.
Armstrong is deeply dedicated to chamber music, especially in collaboration with violinist Renaud Capuçon, cellists Daniel Müller-Schott or Kian Soltani, tenor Julian Prégardien, and the Quatuor Ebène and Armida Quartet. Since 2016, he has also been giving acclaimed recitals on the organ. Additionally, Kit Armstrong is a successful composer and has received commissions from, among others, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the Schubertiade Hohenems, the Konzerthaus Dortmund, and the Musikkollegium Winterthur.
Privately, he lives a consciously reclusive life in Vienna and Salzburg. In 2013, he purchased the Église Sainte-Thérèse in Hirson, France (Picardy), where he has since held concerts and exhibitions.
Kit Armstrong will open the concert with a prelude and fugue from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. A ritual with which he aims to lead the musicians and the audience into concentration.
Text: Cora Uitting
Hallo, ich bin Maya.
