Praised for his subtle interpretations and refined technical mastery, British pianist Alexander Ullman has impressed audiences and critics worldwide with his deep understanding of the scores he interprets, his elegant touch and crystalline phrasing.
Having come to international attention since winning the 2011 Franz Liszt International Piano Competition in Budapest and 2017 International Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Utrecht, Ullman was represented by the Young Classical Artists Trust from 2014 to 2017, and has appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Budapest Radio Orchestra and Korean Symphony Orchestra, as well as the New Jersey, Fort Worth and Montreal symphonies, working with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Giancarlo Guerrero, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Valentin Uryupin and Cristian Măcelaru.
Ullman has performed at London’s Wigmore Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Kimmel Center, Kennedy Center, Seoul Arts Center, Shanghai Oriental Arts Center and the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, and has been featured in the Nottingham and Oxford international piano series, on BBC Radio 3, France Musique and MDR Klassik. Chamber music highlights include performances at the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Pablo Casals Festival in Prades and La Jolla Summerfest with performers such as the Dover Quartet, violinists Barnabás Kelemen and Aleksey Semenenko, and cellist Michael Petrov. In the 2017/2018 season, he closed the Lille Piano(s) Festival with Orchestre de Picardie under Jean-Claude Casadesus.
Recent highlights include performances with the National Center for the Performing Arts Orchestra in Beijing under Markus Stenz, Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona under Josep Vicent, as well as his débuts at the Lucerne Piano Festival and Montreal Chamber Music Festival. He also made his début with the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra and performed recitals in Germany, Austria, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Italy, Georgia, Mexico, Korea and his native UK.
The 2021/2022 season sees his evening recital début at Wigmore Hall and débuts with Münchner Symphoniker under Joseph Bastian and Hong Kong Sinfonietta under Ola Rudner. He also returns to the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, Klavierfestival Ruhr, and performs a recital for Premiere Performances Hong Kong.
In 2019, Ullman’s first album on Rubicon, featuring Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker Suite, Prokofiev’s Six Pieces from Cinderella, as well as Stravinsky’s Petrushka and Firebird suites, received rave reviews. In 2022, the label will release a second album featuring Liszt’s Piano Concerto No 1 and 2 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Andrew Litton, coupled with the composer’s Piano Sonata in B minor.
Born in London in 1991, Ullman studied at the Purcell School, the Curtis Institute and the Royal College of Music, completing his Artist Diploma as the Benjamin Britten Piano Fellow in 2017 (awarded by the Philip Loubser Foundation). His teachers have included William Fong, Leon Fleisher, Ignat Solzhenitsyn, Robert McDonald, Dmitri Alexeev, Ian Jones and Elisso Virsaladze.
