Soloist
Dejan Lazic
- Piano
Biography
Dejan Lazić’s fresh interpretations of the repertoire have established him as one of the most unique and unusual soloists of his generation. Dejan Lazić regularly plays with orchestras such as the Atlanta Symphony, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Basel Chamber Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Danish National Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra Hamburg, Netherlands Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Lazić enjoys a significant following in the Far East touring China with Budapest Festival Orchestra and Iván Fischer, and appearing with NHK Symphony and Yomiuri Nippon, as well as Seoul and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestras. He has built close collaborations with conductors including Giovanni Antonini, Iván Fischer, Michael Francis, Andris Nelsons, Ivan Repušić, Thomas Søndergård, Robert Spano, John Storgårds, Krzysztof Urbański, Jan Willem de Vriend and Kazuki Yamada.
The Spiegel magazine noted of his Liszt recording for Onyx Classics: “Grandiose technique, dedicated and witty, whilst full-bodied and thoughtful: this longitudinal section through Liszt’s oeuvre is a gift, both for beginners and connoisseurs.” Dejan Lazić has previously released many recordings with Channel Classics, including a critically acclaimed Liaisons series; the latest of which couples together C. P. E. Bach and Britten. His live recording of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with London Philharmonic Orchestra and Kirill Petrenko received the German Echo Klassik Award. A recording of the Beethoven Triple Concerto was released for Sony Music in 2015. In autumn 2017 he performed on tour and recorded Beethoven’s own arrangement of his Violin Concerto as Piano Concerto in D major, Op. 61a, with Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and Gordan Nikolić — this CD was released in May 2018 by Onyx Classics. Autumn 2020 sees a new CD release of Mozart’s chamber music for the label ONYX.
After debuts with the Staatsoper Hannover and Ivan Repušić as well as the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Jukka-Pekka Saraste in the last season, Dejan will debut with the Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España and Krzysztof Urbański in 2019/2020. Other highlights include his invitations to the Florida Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Mainly Mozart Festival, Orchestre National de Lille and RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra. He will tour with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra. A concert tour of South America with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra is planned for the coming season. Dejan will work with conductors such as Michael Francis, Gordan Nikolić, Rossen Milanov, Krzysztof Urbański and Jan Willem de Vriend. Chamber concerts and recitals take him to Hong Kong and to festivals such as the Festival Academy Budapest, the Menuhin Festival Gstaad, the Schubertiade and the Storioni Festival in Eindhoven. In this season his chamber music partners are Joshua Bell, Sol Gabetta, Andreas Ottensamer and Benjamin Schmid (a.o.).
Dejan Lazić’s compositions receive increased recognition, he was signed as a composer by the Sikorski Music Publishing Group in 2015. His arrangement of Brahms’ Violin Concerto as a piano concerto was premiered with Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Robert Spano in 2009 and has enjoyed much ongoing success, at BBC Proms, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Hamburg Easter Festival, Chopin Festival Warsaw, in both Americas and in Japan. Lazić has performed his “Piano Concerto in Istrian Style”, Op. 18, many times since its premiere at the Aspen Music Festival in 2014. His first major orchestral work, a tone poem entitled “Mozart and Salieri” (after Alexander Pushkin), Op. 21, was commissioned and premiered by Indianapolis Symphony and Krzysztof Urbański, his Cadenzas for Beethoven’s Piano Concertos Nos. 1 – 4 and Haydn Piano Concertos Nos. 4 & 11 were published as well. Lazić’s most recent Mozart adaptation, “Rondo Concertante” for piano and orchestra (after the 3rd movement from Mozart’s Piano Sonata in B-flat major, K. 333) was premiered in June 2018 at the “Mainly Mozart” Festival in San Diego, USA, with the Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra conducted by Michael Francis. With four fellow composers Lazić composed the work “Der Forellenteich” (“Trout Pond”), which was premiered and released on CD in October 2018 and subsequently performed at various festivals in Germany and Finland. Lazić is currently working on his “Chinese Fantasy” for violin and orchestra Op. 22. His “S.C.H.E.rzo” for Orchestra, Op. 25, commissioned by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra was premiered under the baton of Krzysztof Urbański on 17 January 2020.
Dejan Lazić was born in Zagreb, Croatia, into a family of musicians. He grew up in Salzburg, where he studied at the Mozarteum (clarinet, piano and composition). The early encounter with Zoltán Kocsis and Imre Rohmann at the Bartók Festival in Hungary was decisive for his artistic career, as well as significant influence from Peter Eötvös. Dejan Lazić lives in Amsterdam.