Born in Israel in 1973, Amir Katz first began his piano studies with Hanna Shalgi at age eleven.
After winning several national competitions and receiving a scholarship from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and the Clairmont Award, Katz moved to Europe, supported by other fellowships, including a DAAD grant, to continue his studies with Sulamita Aronovsky, Elisso Wirssaladze, and Michael Schäfer. At the International Piano Academy on Lake Como, he had lessons with Leon Fleisher, Karl Ulrich Schnabel, and Murray Perahia.
In four international competitions Amir Katz won first prize: Maria Canals in Barcelona, Robert Casadesus in Cleveland, Viotti Valsesia in Italy, and the Schubert Competition in Dortmund.
Katz has been invited to give concerts by orchestras and festivals all over the world. He has performed in the most distinguished concert halls in Europe, Asia, and the USA: the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, the Palau de la Musica and the Auditori in Barcelona, the Auditorio National de Mùsica Madrid, Bulgaria Hall in Sofia, the Rudolfinum in Prague, Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv, the Tonhalle Zürich, the Philharmonie and Konzerthaus in Berlin, the Philharmonie (Gasteig) in Munich, and Lincoln Center in New York. In addition he has given concerts at international music festivals including the Savannah Music Festival, the Festival de Radio France et Montpellier, the European Music Festival Sofia, as well as the Oleg Kagan Musikfest Kreuth. Several of his concerts were broadcast for radio and television, including for Radio France, Israel Radio, WDR3 (West German Broadcasting), HR2 (Hessian Broadcasting), NDR Kultur (North German Broadcasting), and Bayrischer Rundfunk.
Katz has performed with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, the Haifa Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Chamber Orchestra, the Israel Camerata, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra, the Berliner Symphony Orchestra, the Bergisch Symphony Orchestra, the Classic FM Radio Orchestra, the Chamber Symphony of Princeton, the New Philharmonic Orchestra of Westphalia, the Lille National Orchestra, the Dortmund Philharmonic, the German Chamber Philharmonic Bremen, the Prague Chamber Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra.
He has worked together with conductors such as Mikhail Jurowski, Michael Helmrath, Arthur Fagen, José Serebrier, Lawrence Foster, and Zubin Mehta.
In past seasons Katz’s intimate relationship to the cantabile works of Romantic piano literature has found expression in four large cycles performed worldwide; he interpreted the complete Schubert sonatas, Schubert’s impromptus, Mendelssohn’s 48 “Songs Without Words,” and Chopin’s 21 Nocturnes, all to great critical acclaim.
His CD recordings, too, have garnered highest praise. With Helicon Records he recorded Schumann’s “Kreisleriana” and “Davidsbündlertänze” and with Live Classics a double CD of Mendelssohn’s “Songs Without Words” which was chosen by editors of the music magazine “Crescendo” in the summer issue of 2009 as the best CD in recent months. They received just as outstanding reviews as Katz’s recording of Schubert’s sonatas D. 845 and D. 958 for Sony BMG. In the fall of 2010, Chopin’s 21 Nocturnes will appear on the Oehms Classics label.
