Already recognized around the world for his poetic and mature playing, 16-year-old Jan Lisiecki has received several awards, including the 2010 Révélations Radio-Canada Musique and the 2011 Jeune Soliste des Radios Francophones. Recently signed for an exclusive recording agreement at age 15 with Deutsche Grammophon,t his debut recording will feature Mozart’s Piano Concertos no. 20, K. 466 and no. 21, K. 467 under Maestro Christian Zacharias with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks.

Performance highlights for the 2011-12 season include the opening concert of the Orchestre de Paris under Paavo Järvi at Salle Pleyel, and debuts with the BBC Symphony at the Barbican in London, the Leipzig Radio Symphony at Leipzig Gewandhaus and the Göteborgs Symfoniker. European recital debuts include Berlin, Brussels, Frankfurt, Gstaad, Hamburg, Lisbon, Vienna, and Zurich. In summer 2011 Jan appeared at various festivals including Verbier, Radio France and Montpellier, la Roque D’Anthéron and Chopin and His Europe, and in the fall, he returned to Japan with recitals in Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka. Recent and upcoming engagements in North America include recitals in Chicago and Seattle, as well as orchestral appearances with the Toronto Symphony under Peter Oundjian and Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain under its music director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin. In 2012 he will make his debut with the Accademia de Santa Cecilia Orchestra under Antonio Pappano, and the New York Philharmonic under Daniel Harding.

Born in Calgary to Polish parents, Jan has played at Carnegie Hall, the Warsaw Philharmonic Concert Hall, Seoul Arts Centre, and Salle Cortot, and has shared the stage with Emanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma, and Pinchas Zukerman. He has performed throughout Canada, in China, England, France, Germany, Guatemala, Italy, Japan, Korea, Poland, and Scotland. In 2010, Jan was asked to substitute for Nelson Freire in four concerts in France. He opened the Seoul International Music Festival in Korea and performed for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth and an audience of 100,000 on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

In 2010, the Fryderyk Chopin Institute released    Jan’s live recordings of both Chopin concertos with Sinfonia Varsovia and Howard Shelley, which received the prestigious Diapason Découverte award in May 2010. Diapason describes Jan as “an unmannered virtuoso already with virile and, above all, irresistibly natural playing.” The BBC Music Magazine commended “Lisiecki’s mature musicality,” and his “sensitively distilled” interpretation of the contrasting concerti, played “with sparkling technique as well as idiomatic pathos,” noting that “even in a crowded CD catalogue, this refreshingly unhyped debut release is one to celebrate.”

Also a dedicated performer of chamber music, Jan has collaborated with the New Zealand String Quartet, Quatuor Ébène, and the Penderecki String Quartet, appearing at festivals including Auvers-sur-Oise, Menton, Merano, Seoul, and many others in Canada and the USA.

Jan’s performances have been broadcast on CBC Canada, BBC Radio, Austrian Radio, French Radio, German Radio, Luxembourg Radio, and Polish Radio, as well as on French Television 3 and on TV 1 and 2 in Poland. He was featured in the CBC Next! series as one of the most promising young artists in Canada, and in the Joe Schlesinger 2009 CBC National News documentary about his life: The Reluctant Prodigy.

Jan performs frequently for various charity organizations, including the David Foster Foundation, the Polish Humanitarian Organization, and the Wish Upon a Star Foundation. In June 2008 he was appointed a National Youth Representative by UNICEF Canada.

Having graduated from high school in Calgary in January 2011, Jan is studying for a Bachelor of Music at  the Glenn Gould School of Music in Toronto on a full scholarship.