Praised by critics for his lyricism, virtuosity and an intensity of performance, pianist Martin Labazevitch appeared in many concert halls and festivals in Poland, Ukraine, Finland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Peru and the United States.
Born in Poland, Mr. Labazevitch studied at the Odessa Conservatory in Ukraine and at the Manhattan School of Music in New York. In 2019 he received Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Rome School of Music, Drama and Art in Washington D.C. His main teachers and mentors include Nina Svetlanova, Horacio Gutierrez, Dmitri Bashkirov, Bella Davidovich and Jorge Luis Prats. He has been a soloist with orchestras in Spain, Poland, Lithuania, Japan, and the United States. Of his debut album release on the Delos label, of the Chopin Concerto with the Beethoven Academy Orchestra lead by Ewa Strusinska, the Fanfare Magazine wrote: “His way of Chopin is fluid and convincing. He plays with a superb control of rubato and has the most beautiful way of melting a phrase.” Of the same album, ConcertoNet wrote, “...he pleasantly refrains from overtaxing Chopin’s conclusive Allegro vivace with shimmering grandeur and eloquent precision that could even rival that of Arthur Rubinstein.”
Mr. Labazevitch is a recipient of the Harold Bauer Award, for the most promising pianist at the Manhattan School of Music, Grand Prize at the Artists International Competition in New York, winner of the La Gesse Foundation Auditions in Washington D.C. as well as the winner of the Rome School of Music Concerto Competition in Washington D.C., performing Brahms Piano Concerto No.1, Op.15.
An avid chamber musician, he has collaborated with Isidore Cohen, Lukas Foss, Ruth Laredo, Andrés Cárdenes, Amit Peled, Ju-Young Baek, Michael Mermagen, as well as the Spokane and Vilnius String Quartets. After his piano trio debut at Carnagie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, The Strad Magazine wrote: “... exuberant, multi-faceted, ...gripping from first note to the last.”
Mr. Labazevitch has worked with several prominent contemporary composers, such as Lukas Foss, Richard Danielpour and Lori Laitman.
Performance highlights of the recent seasons include: Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York, Terrace Theater at Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Damme Myra Hess Series in Chicago, Chopin Foundation in Miami and the Philharmonic Society of Lima, Peru.
An enthusiastic educator, Mr. Labazevitch has been sharing his passion for teaching with students at the Levine School of Music in Washington D.C. He is also the Founder of the Berkshire Piano Academy, in Massachusetts as well as the Artistic Director of the Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Piano Competition and Chopin Piano Academy in Washington D.C., the oldest Chopin contest in the United States of which Van Cliburn, Murray Perahia, Kirill Gerstein and many other luminaries of the piano world became the laureates. In 2022 Mr. Labazevitch co-founded The Paderewski Academy, a pioneer hybrid piano academy based in Zurich, Switzerland.
Mr. Labazevitch is a Steinway Artist.
