Kit Armstrong

One can hardly think of any other pianist and composer of the younger generation who is as versatile and accomplished as Kit Armstrong. His approach to music is inspired by his education in the sciences and mathematics and he has developed a strong artistic profile by tracing the roots of western classical keyboard music to the 16th century virginalists. Musical rarities are an integral part of his performances and relating them to the great classical masterpieces of the piano literature. Born in 1992 in Los Angeles, Armstrong studied at the Curtis Institute of Music and at the Royal Academy of Music in London. At seven, he started studying composition at Chapman University and physics at California State University, later also chemistry and mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania and mathematics at the Imperial College London. He earned a master’s degree in pure mathematics at the University of Paris VI. Armstrong has collaborated with many of the world’s most sought-after conductors, including among others Christian Thielemann, Herbert Blomstedt, Riccardo Chailly, Kent Nagano, Manfred Honeck, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Mario Venzago, and Robin Ticciati. He has appeared with some of the world’s finest orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gewandhaus Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. He was artist-in-residence at the 2018 festival edition of Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and Artist-in-Resonance at Musikkollegium Winterthur, and is a long-standing partner of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. Solo recitals brought him to the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Munich Prinzregententheater, Klavierfestival Ruhr, Philharmonie de Luxembourg and Cologne Philharmonie. A passionate chamber music recitalist, Armstrong has developed close artistic partnerships with other leading instrumental and vocal artists. Together with Renaud Capuçon, he presented the complete Mozart violin sonatas at the Salzburg Mozartwoche Festival and at Berlin’s Boulez Hall. With Christiane Karg, Julian Prégardien, Benjamin Appl and others he has performed important Lied repertoire. Armstrong also appeared as an organist in recitals at the Berlin Philharmonie, Cologne Philharmonie and Konzerthaus Vienna. As a great fit for the young pianist, Armstrong’s debut album on Deutsche Grammophon features works by William Byrd and John Bull, the founding fathers of the keyboard music genre, contributing to a greater awareness of this music. Armstrong has also developed a cycle of 500 Years Piano Music. In the chronology he has conceived, the musical currents, influences and cross-references unfold particularly impressively for the listeners as they traverse five centuries of musical history from 1520 to 2020. In 2012, he bought a church in Hirson in Northern France, near the Belgian border, and started a unique success story that continues to receive a great deal of media attention. The church of St. Thérèse has since become a socio-cultural center which regularly organises concerts and interdisciplinary projects for a regional and wider audience.