Since his triumph as winner of the 1970 Chopin International Piano Competition, pianist Garrick Ohlsson has established himself worldwide as a musician of magisterial interpretive and technical prowess. Although long regarded as one of the world’s leading exponents of the music of Frederic Chopin, Mr. Ohlsson commands an enormous repertoire which ranges over the entire piano literature encompassing more than 80 concerti. For the first time in its history, the Chopin Competition has invited an American to chair the jury, and Mr. Ohlsson assumed that role for the 19th incarnation in October 2025. 

Collaborations with the Cleveland, Emerson, Tokyo and Takacs string quartets have led to decades of touring and recordings. His solo recordings are available on British label Hyperion and in the US on Bridge Records. Both Brahms concerti and Tchaikovsky’s Second piano concerto have been released on live recordings with the Melbourne and Symphony symphonies on their own labels and Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 3 with the Atlanta Symphony and Robert Spano.

A native of White Plains, N.Y. Garrick Ohlsson began piano studies at the age of 8 at the Westchester Conservatory of Music and at 13 he entered the Juilliard School. He was awarded the Avery Fisher Prize in 1994 and the University Musical Society Distinguished Artist Award in Ann Arbor, MI in 1998. He is the 2014 recipient of the Jean Gimbel Lane Prize in Piano Performance from the Northwestern University Bienen School of Music and in August 2018 the Polish Deputy Culture Minister awarded him with the Gloria Artis Gold Medal for cultural merit. He is a Steinway Artist and makes his home in San Francisco.