Biography

The “collaborative pianist nonpareil” (The New Yorker) Julius Drake lives in London and enjoys an international reputation as one of the finest instrumentalists in his field, collaborating with many of the world’s leading artists, both in recital and on disc.

He appears regularly at all the major music centres and festivals: the Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, Munich, Schubertiade, and Salzburg Music Festivals; Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Centre New York; The Royal Concertgebouw, Amsterdam and Philharmonie, Berlin; the Châtelet and Musée du Louvre Paris; La Scala, Milan and Teatro de la Zarzuela, Madrid; Musikverein and Konzerthaus, Vienna; and Wigmore Hall and BBC Proms London. Julius Drake is also frequently invited to perform at international chamber music festivals – most recently, Lockenhaus in Austria; West Cork in Ireland; Oxford in England; Boswil in Switzerland and Delft in the Netherlands.

Director of the Perth International Chamber Music Festival in Australia from 2000 – 2003, Julius Drake was Artistic Director of the Leeds Lieder Festival in 2009, and musical director of Deborah Warner’s staging of Janáček’s Diary of One Who Vanished, touring to Munich, London, Dublin, Amsterdam and New York. Since 2009 he has been Artistic Director of the Machynlleth Festival in Wales.

His passionate interest in song has led to invitations to devise song series for Wigmore Hall, London, the BBC and The Royal Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. His annual series of song recitals – Julius Drake and Friends – in the historic Middle Temple Hall in London, has featured recitals with many outstanding vocal artists including Sir Thomas Allen, Olaf Bär, Iestyn Davies, Veronique Gens, Sergei Leiferkus, Dame Felicity Lott, Simon Keenlyside and Sir Willard White.

Julius Drake’s many recordings include a widely acclaimed series with Gerald Finley for Hyperion, from which the Barber Songs, Schumann Heine Lieder and Britten Songs and Proverbs won the 2007, 2009 and 2011 Gramophone Awards; award winning recordings with Ian Bostridge for EMI; several recitals for the Wigmore Live label, with among others Alice Coote, Joyce DiDonato, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Christopher Maltman and Matthew Polenzani; recordings of French Sonatas for Virgin Classics with Nicholas Daniel; of Kodaly and Schoeck sonatas with the cellists Natalie Clein and Christian Poltera for the Hyperion and Bis labels; Tchaikovsky and Mahler with Christianne Stotijn for Onyx; English song with Bejun Mehta for Harmonia Mundi; and Schubert’s ‘Poetisches Tagebuch’ with Christoph Prégardien, which won the Jahrpreis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik 2016. He is now embarked on a major project to record the complete songs of Franz Liszt for Hyperion – the second disc in the series, with Angelika Kirchschlager, won the BBC Music Magazine Award 2012 – and a series of four Schubert recitals recorded live at Wigmore Hall with Ian Bostridge.

Julius Drake holds a Professorship at Graz University for Music and the Performing Arts in Austria, where he has a class for song pianists and also teaches at the Guildhall School of Music in London. He is an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music. He is regularly invited to give master classes worldwide; recently in Aldeburgh, Brussels, Utrecht, Cincinnati, New York, Toronto, Minneapolis, Ann Arbor, Vienna, and at the Schubert Institute in Baden bei Wien.

Concerts in the 2018-19 season include recitals in his series, ‘Temple Song’ at Middle Temple Hall in London with Gerald Finley, Roderick Williams, Nicky Spence and Sarah Connolly; concerts in Cologne, Brussels, Manchester, and at the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg with Ian Bostridge; in Amsterdam, London, Philadelphia, and Madrid with Sarah Connolly; in Vienna, Zurich, and Leeds with Angelika Kirchschlager; and in Vienna, Hamburg, and London with Gerald Finley. Julius Drake will also perform in Bilbao and Vilabertran with Christoph Pregardien; at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam with Barbara Kozelij, Simon Keenlyside, Rosanne van Sandwijk, and André Morsch; in Edinburgh with Benjamin Appl and Mary Bevan; in Vienna with Dorottya Lang; in Copenhagen with Alice Coote; at Wigmore Hall, London with Katerina Karneus; in Madrid with Fleur Barron and at Carnegie Hall, New York with Matthew Polenzani. Further engagements include a tour of the USA with Holger Falk, a tour of South Korea with Ian Bostridge, a tour of Ireland with Natalie Clein and Claire Booth, and a recording of Dvorak’s Stabat Mater with the Bavarian Radio Choir in Munich.