Burkard Schliessmann

“...Burkard Schliessmann is a fiercely intellectual pianist...” ...he performs the music with a rigorous sense of the ways its details contribute to its form, both in terms of its overall architecture and in terms of its vertical structure...”

Fanfare Magazine (Jan./Feb. 2011) Peter J. Rabinowitz

"...Burkard Schliessmann’s 2-disc Chopin-Schumann Anniversary Edition 2010 (of late works, with Schumann’s Kreisleriana) on MSR-Classics (MS 1361) is done with strong conviction, sheds new light on the music, and leaves the listener stunned..."

American Record Guide (July/August 2011) Donald Vroon

Pianist and organist Burkard Schliessmann has distinguished himself in the music world as an artist of extraordinary insight. He has earned international recognition for his compelling performances, featuring clarity and subtlety at the highest technical level. Mr. Schliessmann has received many awards and honors as recitalist, recording artist, orchestral soloist and chamber musician. According to the New York Times, “Schliessmann is representative of the best of the modern school.” His album, 'Chopin-Schumann Anniversary Edition 2010' on MSR-Classics, recently released worldwide, has received the "Critics' Choice Award 2010" from American Record Guide.

Mr. Schliessmann’s highlights in 2011/2012 include a documentary of his musical life in the popular cultural program “Doppelkopf” of HR Hessian Radio in Frankfurt. In October 2011, he toured the West Coast of the United States where the Bastyr University in Seattle reengaged him to perform in spring of 2012 followed by a ceremony where he will be honored with the President’s Citation. Mr. Schliessmann will also appear in concerts in New York and Tennessee, where he will be the organist for the Inaugural Concert for the newly installed Rodgers organ at Lee University in Knoxville. Additional tours follow in New Zealand, and in Australia where he will be the featured artist on various radio programs in Melbourne and Sydney. He will also appear as orchestral soloist with the Australia Baroque Chamber Orchestra. Later in the season, Mr. Schliessmann will record the music of Chopin and Bach in the Teldex Studios in Berlin and will perform the 2012 New Year’s Concert at the Tonhalle in Duesseldorf.

Burkard Schliessmann has concertized throughout Europe, in the United States, Japan, China, Indonesia and Malaysia. He has participated in many European festivals such as the Munich Piano Summer Festival, the festival “Frankfurt Feste”, the Valldemossa Chopin Festival, and the Maurice Ravel Festival in Paris, among others. As orchestral soloist, Mr. Schliessmann has appeared with the Munich Philharmonic, Radio Symphony Orchestra Frankfurt, WDR Radio Symphony Orchestra Cologne, Symphony Orchestra Wuppertal and the New Philharmonic Westfalia, in addition to other orchestras. He enjoys great popularity in media and has been filmed at major German TV-studios, including the Philharmonie of Gasteig in Munich, the City Hall Wuppertal, and the WDR West German Radio studio in Cologne. Mr. Schliessmann has been featured by the WDR radio in its program “Aspekte” in a joint production with ARD and ZDF TV channels. He has also been featured by BR Bavarian radio, HR Hessian radio and was broadcast nationwide and throughout Europe in the cultural programs of ‘ARTE’, and ‘3sat.’

Mr. Schliessmann is the official Artist of Steinway & Sons and performed at New York’s Steinway Hall. The “Classic Arts Show Case” invited Mr. Schliessmann to appear in their TV- Portraits for which he received high critical acclaim. The American “High Performance Review” magazine had no hesitation in placing him alongside the finest pianists: "...This is the most imaginative playing one has heard yet on the level of Richter Michelangeli, Serkin, Wild and Gould - the highest order of artistry...” Mr. Schliessmann’s interpretation of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg-Variations, released on Bayer label in 2008, received the "Critics' Choice Award 2008" from American Record Guide. The same CD earned the distinction "Recording of the Year 2008" by Music Web International which also chose his recording of an all Chopin program to be the "Recording of the Year 2004."

A native of Germany, Burkard Schliessmann graduated from the Frankfurt Music Conservatory with a Master’s degree. He studied with Shura Cherkassky, Herbert Seidel, Bruno Leonardo Gelber and Poldi Mildner and participated in master classes held by Cherkassky and Gelber in Washington and in Paris. In his personal life, Mr. Schliessmann is dedicated to the study of philosophy and photography. He has been appointed the official Ambassador of the Project Aware Foundation for the “Protecting of Our Ocean Planet.” Mr. Schliessmann is also a passionate diver whose diving excursions have led him to oceans around the world. Exploring the depths to discover hidden treasures and dazzling colors is his motivation, similar to his approach in music. A profound understanding of music and an authentic interpretation is only possible by exploring its depths to uncover multifaceted colors and the smallest detail that leads to its structure. Burkard Schliessmann made the words of philosopher Hegel his principle: "Art isn't all about a pleasant or useful musical mechanism, but about laying bare the truth."