German/New Zealand pianist Michael Endres has been described by Richard Dyer of the Boston Globe as ‘…one of the most interesting pianists recording today’, and by British Gramophone magazine ‘…as an outstanding Schubert Interpreter’. Among his many recordings (thirty-three in total) Michael has won the prestigious French award Diapason D’or three times and awarded the Choc du Musique twice, with The New York Times claiming, ‘performances with pianist Michael Endres were revelatory’.
Michael gained a master’s degree at the Juilliard School in New York under Jacob Lateiner, chamber music under Felix Galimir, and studied with Peter Feuchtwanger in London. He has won many prizes including the Concours Geza Anda (Zurich) and first prize at the International Schubert Competition. His solo recordings include sets of the complete sonatas by Mozart, Schubert, Weber and the rarely heard English composer, Arnold Bax. As well as all works of Ravel and Gershwin, he has recorded the Songs Without Words by Mendelssohn, Barcarolles by Faure, and a three CD set of works by Robert Schumann.
Michael has a wide repertoire and a keen interest in performing lesser played composers like Leopold Godowsky, Charles Ives and Eduard Tubin and is one of only three pianists who has ever recorded the entire 400 Dances of Franz Schubert (with whom he has a special affinity). Michael plays at many festivals in Europe, America and Asia including Newport (USA), Beethoven Fest Bonn, Salzburg Festival and Shanghai Festival, and has performed at Wigmore Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, Munich Philharmonie, Zurich Tonhalle, Musikverein Vienna, Suntory Hall Tokyo and La Scala Milan, to name a few.
He accompanied the legendary German baritone, Hermann Prey for many years and performed with the Berlin Philharmonic soloists, string quartets such as the Artemis, Fine Arts Quartet, Enso Quartet on their New Zealand tour with Chamber Music New Zealand, and the New Zealand String Quartet. He has a distinguished teaching career as Professor of Piano in various leading European schools such as the Hochschule fuer Musik Cologne, Hanns Eisler Hochschule in Berlin and the Barrat Due Institute in Oslo, Norway. Michael currently lives in Canterbury.