Angela Hewitt
OBE, OC (born July 26, 1958) is a Canadian classical pianist who is generally regarded as one of the world's foremost Bach pianists. She also holds British nationality through her father, Godfrey, who was the cathedral organist in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Angela Hewitt began her piano studies at age 3, performed in public at 4, and won her first music scholarship at 5. Aside from the piano, she also studied violin, recorder, and ballet (at Mme. Toumine's school in Ottawa). Her first recital was in The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto at the age of 9. She studied at the Toronto Conservatory from 1964 to 1973. She then went on to study with the French pianist, Jean-Paul Sévilla, at the University of Ottawa. She placed first in the Gian Battista Viotti competition in 1978 and in 1985 won the Toronto International Bach piano competition.
Angela Hewitt has performed internationally as a soloist with renowned orchestras and has made many recordings. In 1994, the Hyperion record label signed her to record all the keyboard music of Johann Sebastian Bach, a project that was recently completed and spanned 14 discs. (Deutsche Grammophon had been given an opportunity to be involved in such a project, but after hearing her first disc, which she recorded as part of her prize for the Toronto competition, they were not enthusiastic, saying there was no market for Bach on the piano. [1])
Angela Hewitt also has made notable recordings of the works of some French composers — including François Couperin, Jean-Philippe Rameau, and Olivier Messiaen, as well as Emmanuel Chabrier and Maurice Ravel, both of whose piano works she recorded in complete cycles. These recordings have also been well received. She has also recorded a number of Beethoven piano sonatas, part of a projected complete cycle for the Hyperion label, and the Beethoven cello sonatas with the cellist Daniel Muller-Schott, also for Hyperion.
Hewitt recorded Bach's complete Well-Tempered Clavier in 1997-99 for Hyperion, and the set has often been recommended as a "reference" version. Nonetheless, after she undertook a world tour from August 2007 to October 2008, during which she performed the Well-Tempered Clavier complete in one concert in 58 cities in 21 countries on six continents, she decided to re-record the entire work. She persuaded Hyperion to back it, and the new recording was made September 8-16, 2008 in the Jesus-Christus-Kirche in Berlin. Unlike the previous recording, the new one makes use of her favored custom-built Fazioli piano.
Angela Hewitt is the founder and artistic director of the Trasimeno Music Festival, held annually since 2005 in Magione, Italy.
Since 1985 Angela Hewitt has lived in London. She also has homes in Canada and Umbria, Italy. In 2000, she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada (OC). She was created an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) on 17 June 2006.
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