Rafał Blechacz (RA-faw BLEH-hatch) came on the scene with a splash by winning five prizes at the 15th International Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 2005. He often performs Chopin and other Romantic repertory. Blechacz was born on June 30, 1985, in Nakło nad Notecią, Poland. He later spoke highly of the small-town environment, saying that it was conducive to strong concentration on the piano. His training was exclusively in Poland. After completing his secondary courses at the National Artur Rubinstein Music School in Bydgoszcz, he studied with Katarzyna Popowa-Zydon at the Feliks Nowowiejski Music Academy. Blechacz was celebrated during the first part of his career for winning competitions. He received the second prize in the Artur Rubinstein in Memoriam Competition in 2002, tied for first place in the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in 2003, and took the grand prize of the International Piano Competition in Morocco in 2004. In 2005, he impressed the judges of the 15th International Frédéric Chopin Competition in Warsaw by winning all five of the prizes (first prize, polonaise, mazurka, sonata, and concerto), a feat no other pianist has achieved. That led to a contract with Deutsche Grammophon, where Blechacz released the album Sonatas: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven in 2008. The secretive and prestigious Gilmore Artist Award was given to Blechacz in 2014. In the middle 2010s, as he outgrew prodigy status, Blechacz slowed his recording career and continued his studies, enrolling in a philosophy doctoral program at Nicolaus Copernicus University with a concentration in musical aesthetics; he has a longstanding interest in the writings of philosopher Leszek Kolakowski. Blechacz continued his focus on Chopin with an album of polonaises in 2013 but then took a four-year hiatus, re-emerging with an acclaimed all-Bach release in 2017. In 2015, he received the Cavalier's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. An enthusiastic organist who plays the instrument for pleasure, Blechacz has toured Europe, Japan, and North America. Several of his album releases have achieved gold record status in Poland. Blechacz has continued to record for Deutsche Grammophon, issuing an album devoted to Fauré, Debussy, Szymanowski, and Chopin in 2019 and returning in 2023 with Chopin, an album that featured the composer's second and third piano sonatas. ~ Blair Sanderson, James Manheim, Rovi