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.

In August 2023, Anton Mejias 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 and the Hallé Orchestra Manchester. Mejias made his debut with The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen at Musikfest Bremen in 2024 performing Beethoven with conductor Tarmo Peltokoski, and performed Prokofiev Piano Concerto with the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra.

During the 2023/24 season, he made his solo recital debuts at the Klavier-Festival Ruhr, the Dresden Music Festival, and in Munich with perfrormances of Bach’s “The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II”. Additionally, Anton Mejias gained acclaim in Dresden with the world premiere of Philip Lasser’s “The Art of Memory”, featuring 12 preludes for solo piano in descending chromatic order from E to F, which was co-comissioned for him by the Dresden Music Festival and Newport Classical. Following his Munich debut in April, 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.” He made his French solo recital debut as part of the Piano aux Jacobins series and performed Bach’s complete French Suites and the world premiere of Philip Lasser’s Suite Français at SWR Kultur Internationale Pianisten in Mainz.

Mejias has 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. He will perform Schubert’s Schwanengesang with Matthias Goerne at the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, and he will play Bach’s “The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II” at the Heidelberger Frühling Fesitival. During the summer festival season, he will appear at the Mikkeli Music Festival as its Young Artist of 2024, return to the Dresden Music Festival, and make his debut at the Moritzburg Festival.

“In general, when it comes to Bach, I try to highlight the incredibly rich emotional side and the heart of the music without overlooking its intellectual aspect and style. The beauty lies in the fact that these two sides belong together; it’s not about one or the other, but rather how both can immensely enrich each other.

On a more detailed level, I pay the most attention to articulation and the variety of articulation. With a modern piano, one can achieve incredible things, and articulation is one of the best tools a pianist has to make Bach sound both stylistically appropriate and rich in color and texture.”

He 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.

Anton Mejias 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.