Arthur Schoonderwoerd

Arthur Schoonderwoerd is regarded as one of the most skillful fortepianists of his generation. His interest reaches from research into the interpretation of music for piano of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries and on the sadly forgotten repertoire of this period, towards the observation of the great diversity of keyboard instruments that developped over these three centuries.
After obtaining his soloist diploma in modern piano at the High Academy of the Arts in Utrecht in the Netherlands, he continued his studies at the Conservatoire Supérieur in Paris in the historical keyboard class of Jos van Immerseel.
In 1995, he won his First Prize in this discipline and then finished his studies with a brilliant post-graduate. He also studied conducting at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris in the class of Dominique Rouits.
In 1995, Arthur Schoonderwoerd won the 3rd Prize and the Belgian Radio Prize (BRT3) during the fortepiano competition of the 32nd Festival de Musique Ancienne de Bruges (Belgium). In 1996, he was nominated Juventus laureate by the Council of Europe at the Sixth European Counsel of Young Musicians. He also received the award for best individual performance at the 1996 Van Wassenaer Competition, the 9th International Competition for Early Music Ensembles.
Along with a career as a soloist around the world, he devotes much of his time to conducting the classical and romantic repertoire, chamber music, and the lied and melody repertoire. He performs frequently with singers such as Isabelle Druet, Sandrine Piau, David Wilson Johnson, Jan Kobow and instrumentalists such as Eric Hoeprich, Jaap ter Linden, Barthold Kuijken, Wilbert Hazelzet, Miklos Spányi, Graf Mourja, François Leleux, Marie Hallynck, Ronald van Spaendonck, etc.
With the Ensemble Cristofori, he approaches the classical and pre-romantic symphonic repertoire in a very personal way. His discography includes around thirty CDs which many of them received numerous awards! Arthur Schoonderwoerd currently teaches at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Lyon, after having been professor of pianoforte at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Barcelona (ESMUC) for 12 years.
As director of the Besançon / Montfaucon estival, he defends an eclectic program with music from the Middle Age to the present day.