With an alert and critical mind, Igor Levit places his art in the context of social events and understands it as inseparably linked to them. The New York Times describes Igor Levit as one of the “most important artists of his generation”, the New Yorker as a pianist “like no other”. Since the 2022/23 season, Igor Levit is the Co-Artistic Director of the Heidelberger Frühling Musikfestival. With the Lucerne Festival he initiated the Piano Fest which will take place in May 2025 for the third time.
In the 2024/25 season Igor Levit performs in recital at the Musikverein Vienna, Philharmonie Berlin, La Scala Milan, Carnegie Hall New York, Walt Disney Concert Hall Los Angeles, Concertgebouw Amsterdam as well as in Naples, Rome, Stockholm and Évian among others. For the inauguration of Christian Thielemann as the new General Music Director of the Berlin State Opera, he opens the new season with the Staatskapelle Berlin. Further highlights of Igor Levits orchestral season are a Prokofiev cycle with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Iván Fischer as well as performances of the monumental piano concerto of Ferruccio Busoni with Sir Antonio Pappano, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig as well as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.
In 2018 Igor Levit has been named the eighth recipient of the prestigious “Gilmore Artist Award” – conferred only every four years to a classical pianist and recognized as the largest and one of the world’s most distinguished music awards. In spring 2019 he was appointed professor for piano at his alma mater, the University of Music, Theatre and Media Hanover. For his political commitment Igor Levit has been awarded the 5th International Beethoven Prize in 2019 followed by the award of the “Statue B” of the International Auschwitz Committee in January 2020. His 53 Twitter-streamed live house concerts during the lockdown in spring 2020 garnered a worldwide audience, offering a sense of community and hope in a time of isolation and desperation. In October 2020 Igor Levit was recognized with the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.
