Nelson Freire will perform in a unique concert alongside the Grand Rapids Symphony on Friday, April 20, at 8 PM, at Carnegie Hall.
Nelson Freire has long been seen as a pianist for connoisseurs, but a series of exceptional recordings have elevated his profile to such an extent that he is now considered one of the great musicians universally recognized today. Whether performing the great established pieces of the repertoire or the more delicate miniatures, he brings to his performances a level of calm reflection that places him in a class apart.
Born in Boa Esperança, Brazil, he began piano lessons at the age of three with Nise Obino and Lucia Branco, who had worked with a pupil of Liszt. He made his first public appearance at the age of five playing Mozart’s Sonata K. 331. In 1957, after winning a scholarship at the International Piano Competition in Rio de Janeiro with Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto, he went to Vienna to study with Bruno Seidlhofer, a teacher of Friedrich Gulda. Seven years later, he won the Dinu Lipatti Medal in London and the first prize at the International Vianna da Motta Competition in Lisbon.
Since his international career began in 1959, Freire has performed in practically all major musical centers, in recitals and working with numerous distinguished conductors and orchestras. A great musical collaborator, he has toured extensively with Martha Argerich, with whom he maintains a long-standing musical collaboration and friendship. They have recorded several albums together, including a live recital from the Salzburg Festival.
He has an extensive discography and was included by Philips in its historical series Great Pianists of the 20th Century, released in 1999. Since 2001, he has been a Decca exclusive artist, with releases including major works by Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann, Debussy, Liszt, as well as the two 
Brahms Concertos with the Gewandhaus Orchestra under Riccardo Chailly. In the bicentennial year of Chopin, in 2010, there were two new releases from Freire: his complete recording of the Nocturnes and a recital album. In the bicentennial year of Liszt, in 2011, Decca released his recital album Harmonies du Soir. An album of his compatriot Villa-Lobos, Brasileiro, was released in the summer of 2012.
In October 2014, he celebrated his 70th birthday with the first release of a cycle of Beethoven concerts with Riccardo Chailly and the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig, coupling the Emperor Concerto with Sonata Op. 111. This was followed by a recording of Chopin’s Concerto in F minor with the Gürzenich Orchestra of Cologne under Lionel Bringuier.
In March 2007, Nelson Freire was named Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres by the French government and, in January 2011, he was made Chevalier (Knight) of the Légion d’Honneur, the highest decoration from the French government to a foreigner.
“Few living pianists convey the pure joy and ecstasy of mastering their art in a more vivid and uncomplicated way than Nelson Freire.” – The Guardian