Eric Lu

“Lu already seems to possess something of the magic touch of early Leeds laureates Murray Perahia and Radu Lupu, and is surely one of the most exciting keyboard prospects in a long time” – The Guardian

“Artistry of that kind is rare in pianists of any age; to find it in a 20-year old is simply astounding” – The Telegraph

Eric Lu won First Prize at The Leeds International Piano Competition in 2018, the first American to win the prestigious prize since Murray Perahia. He made his BBC Proms debut with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and Long Yu in summer 2019. Eric is an exclusive Warner Classics recording artist, and is currently a member of the BBC New Generation Artist scheme.

Highlights of the 2019-20 season include debuts with the BBC Symphony (at the Barbican with Alpesh Chauhan), Detroit Symphony (Eduardo Strausser), St Petersburg Philharmonic (Charles Dutoit) and Kansas City Symphony (Johannes Debus); alongside returns to The Hallé (Jiří Rožeň), Warsaw Philharmonic (Niklas Willén) and Swedish Chamber Orchestra (Martin Fröst). He will also tour the U.K. with the Orchestre National de Lille (Alexandre Bloch), and give recitals at the Elbphilharmonie, Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, BOZAR Brussels, Philharmonie Luxembourg and Gewandhaus Leipzig.

The 2018-19 season saw Eric perform with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic (with Vasily Petrenko), Swedish Chamber Orchestra (Thomas Dausgaard), and The Hallé (Sir Mark Elder and Tomáš Hanus); and give recitals at Muziekgebouw Eindhoven, LSO St Luke’s, Seoul Arts Centre, Saint Petersburg Philharmonia, Grand Theatre Shanghai and Louis Vuitton Foundation Paris. In June 2019, Eric replaced Martha Argerich with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (Darío Ntaca).

Born in Massachusetts in 1997, Eric Lu first came to international attention as a prize-winner at the 2015 Chopin International Competition in Warsaw aged just 17. He went on to win First Prize at the 2017 International German Piano Award and the 2015 US National Chopin Competition, and perform at Carnegie Hall, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Taipei National Concert Hall, Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre and the Auditorio Nacional Madrid.

In 2020, Warner Classics released Eric’s first studio album, featuring the Chopin 24 Preludes, and Schumann’s Geistervariationen. In 2018, Eric’s winning live performances of Beethoven and Chopin from The Leeds with The Hallé and Edward Gardner was released by Warner. He has also released a Mozart, Schubert and Brahms recital on Genuin Classics. He currently resides in Philadelphia where he attends the Curtis Institute of Music, studying with Jonathan Biss and Robert McDonald. He is also a pupil of Dang Thai Son.