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 WellTempered 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. In the season 2023/24 he will make his recital debuts at the Klavier-Festival Ruhr, the Dresdner Musikfestspiele, and in Munich. In 2024/25 he will debut in recital in Berlin.
In addition to Tarmo Peltokoski, he has performed under conductors Klaus Mäkelä and Lawrence Renes and has played with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra and the Hallé Orchestra Manchester. In February 2023, he accompanied baritone Matthias Goerne for a recital of Schubert's Winterreise at the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse.
“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.”
He has won top prizes from the Viotti International Piano Competition and the Nordic Piano Competition.
Anton Mejias began studying piano when he was five years old and went on to study at the Sibelius Academy with Teppo Koivisto and Niklas Pokki. He is currently pursuing a Bachelors degree at the Curtis Institute of Music where he is in the studio of Ignat Solzhenitsyn and he additionally studies with the renowned Gary Graffman.
Photo: Jiyang Chen