ANTON MEJIAS

Born in 2001, the Finnish-Cuban pianist Anton Mejias was fascinated by the music of Bach from a very young age. He made his recital debut at the age of eight, and by ten, he had already learned the entire Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I. Since then he has added the complete French and English Suites, all six partitas, and the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II, to his repertoire.

During the 2023/24 season, he made his US debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl under conductor Tarmo Peltokoski. He has played with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra Manchester, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra. He also made his solo recital debuts at the Klavier-Festival Ruhr, the Dresden Music Festival, and in Munich with performances of Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II. Following his Munich debut, the Süddeutsche Zeitung praised his performance, stating: “Technique is not an issue for Mejias; he can do everything effortlessly … (and) plays with astonishing virtuosity and speed.” In the second half of 2024, Mejias made his French solo recital debut as part of the Piano aux Jacobins series. He also performed Bach’s complete French Suites and gave the world premiere of Philip Lasser’s Suite Français at SWR Kultur’s Internationale Pianisten series in Mainz.

Additionally, Mejias accompanied baritone Matthias Goerne for a recital of Schubert’s Winterreise at the Théatre du Capitole de Toulouse and Wigmore Hall, as well as on a recital tour of South America. In early 2025, he performed Schubert’s Schwanengesang with Goerne at the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam and presented Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II at the Heidelberger Frühling Festival. During the 2025 summer festival season, he appeared at the Mikkeli Music Festival as its Young Artist of 2024, returned to the Dresden Music Festival, and made his debut at the Moritzburg Festival.

In March 2025, Mejias released his first album with Deutsche Grammophon “The Art of Memory” featuring Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier Book II and Philip Lasser’s 12 Preludes “The Art of Memory” woven in-between. Co-commissioned for Mejias by the Dresden Music Festival and Newport Classical, Lasser’s work presents a series of solo piano preludes arranged in descending chromatic order from E to F. Mejias gave the world premiere of this work at the Dresden Music Festival, where it received acclaim. The album was recorded live at the Palais im Großen Garten in Dresden and is available on all streaming platforms. The full concert was broadcast on Stage +, Deutsche Grammophon’s streaming website.

“On a very general level what I am trying to do with Bach is to bring out the incredibly rich emotional side and the heart of the music without overlooking the intellectual side and the style of the music. The most beautiful thing is that these two go together and it’s not a this or that kind of thing, both sides can enrich each other tremendously.

On a more detailed level what I pay the most attention to is articulation and the variety of it. You can do incredible things with the modern grand piano and articulation is one of the best tools a pianist has for making Bach sound stylish but also rich in color and texture.”

In the 2025/26 season, Mejias will perform Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 in Toulouse with the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse under Tarmo Peltokoski. Further highlights include that he will play Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto with the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra. Mejias will also make his solo debut in the Tonhalle Zurich’s Série jeunes with a recital of Bach’s complete French Suites, and will present Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II in Solingen.

Mejias has won top prizes from the Viotti International Piano Competition and the Nordic Piano Competition. He was the 2024 Musikfest Bremen prize winner, which was announced following his concerto debut at the festival in August 2024.

He began studying piano with Meri Louhos when he was five years old and went on to study at the Sibelius Academy with Teppo Koivisto and Niklas Pokki. In 2024, he graduated from the renowned Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia under the renowned Gary Graffman and Ignat Solzhenitsyn.