Nick van Bloss
A | Sundry
Full Biography
Nick van Bloss, one of today’s foremost pianists, was born in London and began piano lessons at the age of 11. His musical training began as a chorister at Westminster Abbey and he entered the Royal College of Music at the age of 15 as a Junior, attending full time from the age of 17, studying with Yonty Solomon and winning prizes for his playing. Further studies were with Benjamin Kaplan. In 1987, on hearing him play, the great Russian virtuoso, Tatiana Nikoleyeva, described van Bloss as the ‘finished article of a pianist’.

In 1994, aged 26, Nick van Bloss played a televised recital in Poland at the Chopin Festival. This proved to be his last public appearance before he retired from playing completely for 15 years. During these years van Bloss rarely touched a piano, but he did write his autobiographical memoir ‘Busy Body’, which was published, to much acclaim, in 2006. The following year he was the subject of a BBC ‘Horizon’ documentary, inspired by his book, exploring his creativity. This documentary led to interest in his piano playing and, in 2008, he began a series of recordings with award-winning producer Michael Haas, beginning with Bach’s monumental ‘Goldberg’ Variations, and including a recording of Bach’s Keyboard Concertos with the English Chamber Orchestra.


Producer Michael Haas, says that ‘in polyphonic music, such as Bach, Nick offers a superhuman degree of precision and individuality with each voice, while never losing overall transparency,’ and who feels that van Bloss’s Chopin and Rachmaninov are characterised by a ‘crystalline solidity’ which enables him to build and shape works with total security and ‘achieve a near-perfect balance between vibrancy of keyboard playing and sweep of musical vision.’

In April 2009, van Bloss made a ‘comeback’ concert at London’s Cadogan Hall, playing a concerto by Bach and Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Concerto with the English Chamber Orchestra. The concert, uniformly reviewed as a ‘Triumph’ by London’s critics, attracted massive media interest from all over the globe.

Since then, Nick van Bloss has performed recitals and concertos in the United States, Japan, Sweden, United Kingdom, Germany and Austria, with the English Chamber Orchestra, and conducted concertos from the keyboard. He was hailed as a ‘Genius without Vanity’, by the press after his Austrian debut, and was recently (2017) described by Latvian Radio as a ‘Legendary British pianist’, after his Baltic tour of Beethoven Piano Concertos with Sinfonietta Riga, conducted by Thomas Sanderling. His recording of Chopin’s 3rd Sonata and the 24 Preludes was released in 2013, and his 2015 recording of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations has been hailed as ‘the standard by which other recordings can be judged’, and the CD was further awarded the ‘Supersonic’ Award from Europe’s Pizzicato Magazine. His recording of Schumann’s ‘Kreisleriana’ and the Etudes Symphoniques was released in November 2015.

As part of his long-term relationship with Nimbus Records, Nick’s future CDs will include Sonatas by Beethoven, concertos, and further works of Robert Schumann. Past performances included concerts in Canada at the Montreal Bach Festival and a return invitation to London’s Wigmore Hall to play Bach’s ‘Goldberg Variations’, following his critically acclaimed all-Beethoven recital there in September 2016.

2017/2018
This biography is for website use only. For a full and updated biography, please email office@msbuhl.com
If you wish to revise, or receive a full and updated biography, please contact Mark Stephan Buhl Artists Management (office@msbuhl.com). Please use material of the current season only.