Louis Lortie
In demand on five continents for more than thirty years, he performs with the world’s most prestigious orchestras and in major concert halls worldwide. A prolific artist, his long‑standing and exclusive collaboration with Chandos Records has resulted in a discography of over 45 albums devoted to the core pillars of piano literature. He is currently followed by more than a quarter of a million monthly listeners on streaming platforms.
In the United Kingdom, his close and enduring relationship with the BBC, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and the BBC Philharmonic has led to numerous concerts and recordings, as well as more than ten invitations to the BBC Proms. In his native Canada, he appears regularly with all the major orchestras, including Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa, and Calgary.
In Germany, his collaborators include the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, the Deutsches Symphonie‑Orchester Berlin, the Dresden Philharmonic, and the MDR Symphony Orchestra Leipzig. In the United States, he has performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, San Diego Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, and the New Jersey Symphony. Further afield, his international collaborations include the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the Gansu Philharmonic Orchestra (China), the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, the Adelaide and Sydney Symphony Orchestras, and the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo in Brazil.
Discovered early in his career by Charles Dutoit, Louis Lortie performed and toured extensively with him, and later shared the stage regularly with Kurt Masur during his tenure with the Orchestre National de France and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. More recent collaborations include Edward Gardner and Sir Andrew Davis, with whom he has recorded extensively, as well as Yannick Nézet‑Séguin, Jaap van Zweden, Simone Young, Antoni Wit, and Thierry Fischer.
As a recitalist and chamber musician, Louis Lortie appears regularly at London’s Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Carnegie Hall, and Chicago Symphony Hall. He is particularly sought after for his complete cycles presented in a single evening, including Liszt’s Années de pèlerinage, Chopin’s complete Études, and cycles of Beethoven’s piano sonatas—the most recent of which was filmed at Salle Bourgie in Montréal and broadcast on Medici.tv.
For more than twenty years, the Lortie‑Mercier Duo, formed with Hélène Mercier, has offered renewed perspectives on the repertoire for four‑hand piano and two pianos, both in concert and on disc.
Lortie’s decades‑long relationship with Chandos Records has produced a catalogue of more than forty‑five recordings, spanning repertoire from Mozart to Stravinsky, including the complete Beethoven piano sonatas and Liszt’s complete Années de pèlerinage. Recent projects include the complete solo piano works of Chopin, whose final volume—featuring the Cello Sonata with Truls Mørk—is scheduled for release in October 2025, as well as a series devoted to the piano works of Fauré, offering fresh interpretive insight.
A committed advocate for 20th‑century music, he has recorded a widely praised performance of Lutosławski’s Piano Concerto with Edward Gardner and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. His exploration of Vaughan Williams’s Piano Concerto includes both the original version with Peter Oundjian and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and the revised two‑piano version with Hélène Mercier and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Andrew Davis. Louis Lortie and Hélène Mercier have also recorded Le Carnaval des animaux with Neeme Järvi and the Bergen Philharmonic, Rachmaninoff’s complete works for two pianos, and two volumes of Debussy works for two pianos and piano four hands.
Louis Lortie is co‑founder and Artistic Director of the LacMus Festival, held annually since 2017 on the shores of Lake Como. He served as master in residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Brussels from 2017 to 2022, and continues to mentor exceptionally talented young pianists, fostering the next generation through dedicated concert cycles.
He made his debut with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra at age 13, and in 1984 won First Prize at the Busoni Competition and Fourth Prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition. His teachers include Yvonne Hubert (herself a pupil of Alfred Cortot), Dieter Weber in Vienna, and Leon Fleisher.
Louis Lortie was named Officer of the Order of Canada in 1992, Chevalier of the Ordre national du Québec in 1997, and received an Honorary Doctorate from Université Laval the same year.
