Pianist and musicologist Ralph van Raat studied the piano at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with Ton Hartsuiker and Willem Brons. As a part of its Advanced Programme, Van Raat studied also with Claude Helffer in Paris, with Ursula Oppens at Chicago’s Northwestern University, with Pierre-Laurent Aimard at the Musikhochschule in Cologne and with Liisa Pohjola in Helsinki, Finland. He also studied Musicology at the University of Amsterdam; in both disciplines he graduated with distinction. Among the prizes Ralph van Raat has won are the Second Prize and Donemus-Prize (for Contemporary Music) of the Princess Christina Competition (1995); the Stipend-Prize Darmstadt during the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt (1998); First Prize of the International Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition (1999); the (Philip Morris) Arts Award 2003; the Elisabeth Everts Prize (2004), a Prince Bernhard Fellowship (2004), a Borletti- Buitoni Fellowship (2005), the VSCD Classical Music Prize (2005) and the Fortis MeesPierson Award from the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam (2006). He appears as an international recitalist and as a soloist with orchestras in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and in the United States, with many of his concerts broadcast or seen on television. He has made several recordings and regularly collaborates with composers, many of whom have dedicated their piano compositions to him. Ralph van Raat has been a Steinway Artist since 2003.
For more information, please go to www.ralphvanraat.com
Interview with Ralph van Raat, International Piano Magazine
