Stephen Ham
Born in Toronto, Canadian pianist Stephen Ham commenced piano lessons at the age of fourteen. Within two years he was playing at an advanced level and winning local prizes with works such as the Berg Sonata op. 1. At nineteen, he won the Canadian Music Competition's International Stepping Stone. In 1999, he received 1st prize and the audience prize at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Young Performers Competition. He is also the recipient of Canada Council grants and a prize winner of the 2004 José Iturbi International Piano competition in Spain.
Stephen Ham has performed in Europe, Canada, the United States, Australia, South-America and Asia; with recent performances taking him to: Chicago, Amsterdam, Vienna, Athens, Florence, Rome, Montreal, Guatemala City, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. In Canada, he has been heard frequently in recital, on CBC radio, and also in concerti with the National Arts Center and CBC Vancouver Orchestras. He possesses a repertoire of twenty piano concertos and as many solo recitals that include several important works of the piano literature such as the complete late Beethoven Sonatas, Chopin Etudes and significant works by: Schumann, Brahms, Mozart, Bach, Ravel, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, and Liszt etc.
In 2001, he was accepted to attend the International Piano Foundation on Lake Como, Italy. There, he was among eight internationally selected pianists enjoying private master classes with world-renowned artists. He has worked there with such artists as: Alicia de Larrocha, Leon Fleisher, Dmitri Bashkirov, Charles Rosen, Menahem Pressler, Fou Ts'ong, and Claude Frank among others. Stephen earned his Masters Degree from the University of Montreal and his Artist Diploma from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, where he studied principally with Marc Durand and also with Leon Fleisher and André Laplante. Stephen has also had lessons with Maurizio Pollini, studying works by: Beethoven, Schumann, Webern and Debussy.
He currently resides in Vienna, Austria.