Paul Lewis is one of the foremost interpreters of the Central European piano repertoire, his performances and recordings of Beethoven and Schubert having received universal critical acclaim. He was made a CBE in 2016 for his services to music, and the sincerity and depth of his musical approach have won him fans around the world.

This global popularity is reflected in the world-class orchestras with whom he works, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, London Symphony, Philharmonia, Bavarian Radio Symphony, NHK Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw and Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestras. His close relationship with the Boston Symphony Orchestra led to his selection as Tanglewood’s Koussevitzky Artist in 2020.

With a natural affinity for Beethoven and in relentless pursuit of understanding his works, Lewis was central to celebrations of the composer’s 250th-anniversary year around the world in 2020. He took part in the BBC’s three-part documentary Being Beethoven, and was due to perform concerto cycles at Tanglewood, the Tiroler Festspiele Erl, Palau de la Música Catalana and Palermo’s Teatro Massimo. He has performed the cycle all over the world, including with the Melbourne Symphony, São Paulo State Symphony and Antwerp Symphony orchestras, and was the first pianist to play the complete cycle in a single season at the BBC Proms in 2010.

As a chamber musician, he is a regular at Wigmore Hall, having played there more than 100 times, and was one of the artists selected to play at the hall’s Lunchtime Series at the start of the Coronavirus crisis. He works closely with tenor Mark Padmore in lieder recitals around the world, and together they have recorded three Schubert song cycles.

Lewis is co-Artistic Director of Midsummer Music, an annual chamber music festival held in Buckinghamshire. He is a passionate advocate of music education, and the festival offers free tickets to local schoolchildren. He also gives masterclasses around the world alongside his concert performances. Lewis studied with Joan Havill at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London before going on to study privately with Alfred Brendel.

Lewis’s awards include the Royal Philharmonic Society Instrumentalist of the Year, two Edison Awards, three Gramophone Awards, a Diapason d’Or, and the South Bank Show Classical Music Award, as well as honorary degrees from the universities of Liverpool, Edge Hill and Southampton.