Joop Celis (piano)

Pianist Joop Celis, teacher at the Maastricht Conservatory and the Lemmens Campus (LUCA) in Leuven, received several prestigious awards in the early years of his fifty-year career. These opened the doors to international concert halls where he treats the public to a broad repertoire ranging from Viennese Classics and Romantic composers to French Impressionism and Late Romanticism.

Under the labels of Chandos and BIS, Celis has meanwhile presented a number of CDs with works by the British composer York Bowen and the Spaniard Enrique Granados, all of which were praised by the (inter)national press: 'Celis is superb, leaving Larrocha and Ciccolini way behind in terms of tenderness and expressive point', according to (Philllip Scott, Fanfare Magazine. And Christo Lelie writes in EPTA Bulletin: '…But it is above all his beautiful rubato and always well-cared-for touch, which can be enjoyed extraordinarily.' That creates beautiful expectations for his portrayal of Schubert, Chopin, Fauré, Granados and Rachmaninov.