Pianist Andrew Tyson is emerging as a distinctive and intriguing musical voice. First Prize Winner of the 2011 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, he makes his New York debut in the Rhoda Walker Teagle Concert at Merkin Hall and his Washington, DC debut at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater this season in the Young Concert Artists Series. This season, Mr. Tyson gives concerts twice in his home state of North Carolina: at the Lincoln Cultural Center and in the St. Stephen’s Concert Series, and also plays at the Falany Center for the Performing Arts in Georgia, the Lied Center of Kansas, the Levine School of Music in Washington, DC, the El Paso Chopin Music Festival in Texas, and the International Keyboard Institute & Festival at the Mannes College of Music in New York.

At the 2012 Leeds International Piano Competition, Mr. Tyson won both 5th Prize and the new Terence Judd – Hallé Orchestra Prize, which is awarded by the Orchestra’s musicians and its Music Director, Sir Mark Elder. The Prize brought three performances of Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 2 with the Orchestra in November 2012, which resulted in his being re-engaged for next season.

He has been heard at prestigious venues including the Caramoor Festival’s Rising Stars, the Coolidge Auditorium at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, the National Chopin Foundation in Miami, and the Brevard Music Festival in North Carolina. Mr. Tyson has performed abroad at the Paul Klee Zentrum in Switzerland, the Filharmonia Narodowa in Poland, the Sintra Festival in Portugal, and the Festival Cultural de Mayo in Guadalajara, Mexico. He has performed as soloist with orchestras including the Durham Symphony, the Raleigh Symphony, the Chapel Hill Philharmonia, the Old York Road Symphony, the Frost Symphony Orchestra of the University of Miami, and the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle.

At the YCA Auditions, Mr. Tyson was awarded YCA’s Paul A. Fish Memorial Prize and the John Browning Prize as well as three performance prizes: the Brownville Concert Series, the Lied Center of Kansas, and the Bronder Prize for Piano of Saint Vincent College.

Born in Durham, North Carolina, Mr. Tyson made his orchestral debut at the age of 15 as winner of the Eastern Music Festival’s competition to appear with the Guilford Symphony. His early studies were with Dr. Thomas Otten of the University of North Carolina. He graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music where he worked with Claude Frank, earned his Master’s degree at The Juilliard School working with Robert McDonald, and is currently in the Artist Diploma program at The Juilliard School, where he won the Gina Bachauer Piano Competition.

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