Angela Hewitt
About this Artist
Angela Hewitt occupies a unique position among today’s leading pianists. With a wide-ranging repertoire and frequent appearances in recital and with major orchestras throughout Europe, Americas and Asia, she is also an award-winning recording artist whose performances of Bach have established her as one of the composer’s foremost interpreters. In 2020 she received the City of Leipzig Bach Medal: a huge honour that for the first time in its 17-year history was awarded to a woman.
In March 2024, Hewitt embarked on her latest major project entitled ‘The Mozart Odyssey’, comprising the composer’s complete piano concertos. This follows Hewitt’s highly acclaimed Bach Odyssey cycle (2016–22), in which she performed the complete keyboard works of Bach across 12 recitals, also presented worldwide. The Mozart project continues in 2025/26 with a variety of engagements which extend the Odyssey’s reach to 13 countries; recent/upcoming conductor-led performances include Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, Brussels Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Warsaw Philharmonic, Estonian National Symphony, Tampere Philharmonic, Fort Worth Symphony, Montreal Symphony, NAC (Ottawa), Toronto Symphony, Vancouver Symphony and Ulster orchestras, among others. Hewitt is also much in demand as a play-conductor, collaborating with Orchestra of St Luke’s NYC, Cameristi della Scala, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Bochumer Symphoniker, Royal Northern Sinfonia, London Mozart Players and Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra as part of the Mozart Odyssey. She has previously led Hong Kong and Copenhagen philharmonic orchestras, Lucerne Festival Strings, Zurich, Basel, Swedish and Stuttgart Chamber orchestras, Salzburg Camerata, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in New York, Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa in Japan, and Vienna Tonkünstler Orchestra in Vienna’s Musikverein.
Recent recital tours have included Australia and Japan, including performances in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Tokyo and Kyoto.
Hewitt’s award-winning cycle for Hyperion Records of all the major keyboard works of Bach has been described as “one of the record glories of our age” (The Sunday Times). Her discography also includes albums of Couperin, Rameau, Scarlatti, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Fauré, Debussy, Chabrier, Ravel, Messiaen and Granados. Her most recent recordings include three volumes of Mozart’s complete piano sonatas, released in November 2022 and October 2023, with the final set released in June 2025. In 2023, Hewitt’s complete catalogue became available on all major streaming platforms following Universal Music Group’s acquisition of Hyperion; including her critically acclaimed Diapason d’Or recording of the Goldberg Variations, which was also the first of her recordings to be issued on vinyl in September 2024. A regular in the USA Billboard chart, her album Love Songs hit the top of the specialist classical chart in the UK and stayed there for months after its release. In 2015 she was inducted into Gramophone Magazine’s Hall of Fame thanks to her popularity with music lovers around the world.
Born into a musical family, Hewitt began her piano studies aged three, performing in public at four and a year later winning her first scholarship. She studied with Jean-Paul Sévilla at the University of Ottawa and, in 1985, won the Toronto International Bach Piano Competition, which launched her career. In 2018 Angela received the Governor General’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2015 she received the highest honour from her native country – becoming a Companion of the Order of Canada (which is given to only 165 living Canadians at any one time). In 2006 she was awarded an OBE from Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. She is a member of the Royal Society of Canada, has seven honorary doctorates, and is a Visiting Fellow of Peterhouse College in Cambridge. In 2020 Angela was awarded the Wigmore Medal in recognition of her services to music and relationship with the hall over 35 years.
Angela lives in London but also has homes in Ottawa and Umbria, Italy where, 21 years ago, she founded the Trasimeno Music Festival — a week-long annual event which draws an audience from all over the world. To mark its 20th anniversary in 2025, Hewitt curated a special celebratory concert at Wigmore Hall, performing with and showcasing musicians that have appeared at the Festival.