Vita
Vita
In 2000, pianist Markus Bellheim won the International Olivier Messiaen Competition in Paris. This marked the beginning of an extensive concert career which has taken him throughout Europe, as well as to Asia and America. Born in Hamburg in 1973, Markus Bellheim has performed at many important festivals and in concert series (Beethovenfest Bonn, Kasseler Musiktage, La Roque d’Anthéron, Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival, Cantiere Internazionale d’Arte, etc.).
Markus Bellheim has performed the complete works for piano solo by Olivier Messiaen several times to high public acclaim. He performs Messiaen’s most important work for solo piano and orchestra, the Turangalîla Symphony, throughout the world.
The music of Johann Sebastian Bach is a further focus of Bellheim’s career. His concert repertoire includes the complete keyboard works of Bach.
Leading orchestras such as the SWR Radio Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg, the Bamberg Symphony, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Orchestre philharmonique de Nice and Malmö Symphony Orchestra regularly invite Bellheim to perform works from the classical repertoire with them. He also performs with established contemporary music ensembles such as Ensemble Modern and Ensemble Intercontemporain. Markus Bellheim works with conductors including Sylvain Cambreling and Jonathan Nott and composers Steve Reich, György Kurtág and Wolfgang Rihm.
Following CD recordings of the complete solo works by Wolfgang Rihm and Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus by Olivier Messiaen on the NEOS label, NEOS has recently released the Piano Concerto by Bruno Maderna with Markus Bellheim and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. This recording has received many prizes, including the German Record Critics’ Award. Bellheim’s recording of Messiaen’s Trois Petites Liturgies de la Présence Divine with the Kremerata Baltica, released on the ECM label to mark the 30th anniversary of the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival, has been particularly well-received.
Markus Bellheim gives regular master classes in Germany and abroad. He has taught at the music conservatoires in Würzburg and Mannheim and was appointed Professor of Piano at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich in the winter semester 2011. He is a freelance editor and author for the Munich publisher G. Henle Verlag.