Z：
Rafał Blechacz
Born in Nakło nad Notecią on 30 June 1985, Rafał Blechacz was five when he began learning the piano at a local music centre. At the age of eight he enrolled at Bydgoszcz’s Artur Rubinstein Music School. Between 1996 and 1999 he won the top awards at a number of Polish national piano competitions. He is currently completing his studies at the Feliks Nowowiejski Music Academy in Bydgoszcz.
In 2002 he took second prize at the Artur Rubinstein “in memoriam” International Competition for Young Pianists in Bydgoszcz, the following year was co-winner of the International Piano Competition in Hamamatsu, Japan, and in 2004 won the top award at the International Piano Competition in Morocco.
This succession of competition victories culminated in October 2005, when Rafał Blechacz was unanimously awarded First Prize at the Warsaw Chopin Competition (no Second Prize was given that year). In addition to the main prize he also took home the three special prizes: the Polish Radio Award for “Best Performance of the Mazurkas”, the Polish Chopin Society Award for “Best Polonaise Performance”, and the Warsaw Philharmonic Award for “Best Concerto Performance”. Additionally, he won the prize founded by Krystian Zimerman for “Best Sonata Performance”.
Since his triumph at the Chopin Competition, Rafał Blechacz has been in demand for recitals and concerto appearances in the musical capitals of Europe and the Far East. In 2006 he has already appeared at Warsaw’s Philharmonic Hall and at the Tchaikovsky Hall of the Moscow Conservatory with the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev.
