Biography
Maurice van Schoonhoven (1984) studied with Bernd Brackman in Amsterdam, with Maria João Pires in Portugal, and in Berlin with the Russian pianist Elena Richter, former assistant to the renowned Heinrich Neuhaus.
He attended masterclasses with Jan Wijn, Mikhail Voskresensky, Emanuel Ax, Wibi Soerjadi, Stephen Kovacevich, Jan Marisse Huizing, and Leslie Howard, among others.
Maurice van Schoonhoven always puts his dazzling technique at the service of the music itself: with his richly colored tonal palette, he knows how to touch the listener's heart. This has been recognized with various awards: he won the Rotterdam Piano Three-Day Event in 2001, the prestigious Königin Sophie Charlotte Competition in Germany in 2002, and the Theater aan de Parade Competition in Den Bosch in 2004.
He frequently performs both domestically and internationally. For example, he has given concerts in England, France, Romania, and Berlin, where he performed in venues such as the Philharmonie and the Konzerthaus. He has played with various orchestras: in 2003, he performed Mozart's Double Concerto with Hannes Minnaar, and in 2018, he played Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto with the Mokum Symphony under the direction of Joan Berkhemer.
He forms duos with Bernd Brackman (primarily focused on classical and romantic repertoire) and, since 2019, with Théotime Voisin (associate principal double bassist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra), with whom he recorded the complete works for double bass and piano by Giovanni Bottesini in 2021.
He also recorded a CD with works by Jan van Amerongen. His repertoire is broad, with an emphasis on the major romantic piano literature.
"Anyone not moved by Maurice van Schoonhoven has a heart of stone," says the renowned British Liszt expert and interpreter Leslie Howard.
