| Biography | Angela Hewitt, OC OBE (born July 26, 1958) is a British/Canadian classical pianist. She is best known for her Bach interpretations.
Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt was born in Ottawa, daughter of the Yorkshire-born Godfrey Hewitt (thus she has dual nationality) who was choirmaster at Christ Church Cathedral in Ottawa. She began piano studies at the age of three with her mother. She also studied violin with Walter Prystawski, recorder with Wolfgang Grunsky, and ballet with Nesta Toumine in Ottawa. Her first full-length recital was at the age of nine, in The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, where she studied from 1964 to 1973 with Earle Moss and Myrtle Guerrero. She then went on to be the student of French pianist Jean-Paul Sevilla at the University of Ottawa.
Angela Hewitt has performed around the world in recital and as soloist with orchestra. She is most well known for her cycle of Bach recordings which she began in 1994 and finished in 2005covering all the major keyboard works of J.S. Bach. Her recording of Bach's Art of Fugue will appear in 2014. Her discography also includes works by Couperin, Rameau, Messiaen, Chabrier, Ravel, Schumann, Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy and Fauré. She has recorded two discs of Mozart concertos with the Orchestra da Camera di Mantova, and a third featuring Ottawa's National Arts Centre Orchestra, conducted by Hannu Lintu, will appear in 2014. With the DSO Berlin and Lintu, she also recorded the Schumann Piano Concerto.She also has earned a scholarship at the age of five.
Angela Hewitt's entire 20072008 season was devoted to complete performances of Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier in major cities all over the world. Her Hyperion DVD on Bach Performance on the Piano was released to coincide with the tour.
In July 2005, Angela Hewitt launched the Trasimeno Music Festival in Umbria near Perugia of which she is Artistic Director.
After living in Paris from 1978 to 1985, Hewitt moved to London, which has been her principal residence ever since. She also has homes in Ottawa and Umbria, Italy.
In 2000, she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada (OC). She was created an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) on June 17, 2006. Angela Hewitt was named Gramophone Artist of the Year in 2006, received the MIDEM Classical Award for Instrumentalist of the Year in 2010, and awarded the first ever BBC Radio 3 Listeners Award (Royal Philharmonic Society Awards) in 2003. She is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and has honorary degrees from the University of Ottawa, the University of Toronto, Queen's University (Kingston), the Open University (London), Mount Saint Vincent University (Halifax), and the University of Saskatchewan. |