The young Danish pianist, Gustav Piekut, “hits the sweet spot between technical precision and off- the-cuff brilliance” (BBC Music Magazine) and is “a true musical poet, a real sound artist” (Pizzicato Magazine). His interpretations have garnered him great acclaim, recognised by music critics for their technique, intelligence, grace, and strength. Piekut performs as a soloist with notable orchestras and gives solo recitals in prestigious venues in Denmark and abroad. He has recorded internationally acclaimed albums, including the latest one, “Towards the Flame,” released on Naxos Records, which was nominated for the International Classical Music Awards 2022. The album presents a hitherto unheard combination of virtuosic piano music by composers Rued Langgaard and Alexander Scriabin. “Piekut impresses in his interpretations with nervously flickering pathos on the brink of disintegration,” wrote Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung after a recital featuring this music. Additionally, Piekut is an avid chamber musician and Artistic Director of Festival & Friends, an annual music festival in Copenhagen focusing on classical music and much more.

Highlights of the 2023-24 season include solo performances with Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Magdeburgische Philharmonie, State Slovak Orchestra Kosice, and Sønderjyllands Symfoniorkester in concerti by Beethoven, Prokofiev, Chopin, and Gershwin. Piekut also appears at several important festivals, including Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festspiele in Germany, Hindsgavl Festival in Denmark, En Blanc et Noir in France, and Pianister på Trollhaugen in Norway.

Born in the northern town of Aalborg in 1995 to a family of academics, Piekut discovered the piano at the ago of six and immediately fell in love with classical music. During his early studies with Martin Lysholm Jepsen at the Gradus Piano School, he won all national youth competitions in Denmark and, some years later, was admitted to the Berlin University of Arts in the class of Prof. Klaus Hellwig and later studied at The Royal Danish Academy of Music with Prof. Jens Elvekjær. In Germany, he was awarded the prestigious Studienstiftung scholarship and took prizes in several international competitions, including the KlavierOlymp Bad Kissingen, Dublin International Piano Competition, Aarhus International Piano Competition and many others. He also, in 2018, released his first album, recording one of the touchstones of piano literature, Beethoven’s expansive Diabelli Variations. This album won him the Artistry Prize of the Association of Danish Music Reviewers and received international acclaim as well. “The young Dane proves himself worthy of the risk”, wrote the British magazine Pianist in a five-star review; “[he] provides the listener with an increasingly compelling journey through Beethoven’s
challenging landscape.”

Piekut’s interpretation of Rachmaninov’s demanding 3rd Piano Concerto with the Copenhagen Philharmonic in the Tivoli Gardens Concert Hall “evoked the wildest, uncontrollable emotions in a myriad of expressive shifts” and “generated a roar by the audience seldom heard” (Politiken). He is generously supported by the Augustinus Foundation with a career grant and the provision of a Steinway & Sons grand piano for his daily musical work.