Grammy-winning Canadian pianist, entertainer and composer Chilly Gonzales will release the final album of his Solo Piano trilogy, Solo Piano III, on September 7th, 2018.
The album comes six years after Solo Piano II and, according to Gonzales, at “a more problematic inflection point”. “Like its predecessors, it’s a mostly happy ending in C major, but there is more dissonance, tension and ambiguity along the way… The musical purity of Solo Piano III is not an antidote for our times, it is a reflection of all the beauty and ugliness around us.”
Known as much for the intimate piano touch of best-selling albums Solo Piano I and Solo Piano II as for his showmanship and composition for award-winning stars, “Gonzo”, as he is known to close collaborators, aims to be a man of his time, approaching the piano with classical and jazz training but with the attitude of a rapper. He holds the Guinness world record for the longest solo concert at over 27 hours. He performs and writes songs with Jarvis Cocker, Feist and Drake, among others, with recent collaborators including the likes of Ibeyi and Toddla T. With Never Stop, Chilly Gonzales composed a global hit for the inaugural Apple iPad 2 campaign. In 2014 he won a Grammy for his collaboration on Daft Punk’s ‘Best Album of the Year’ and composed the best-selling book of easy piano pieces Re-Introduction Etudes. With his last album Chambers, Chilly Gonzales devoted himself to finding a modern take on chamber music.
Most recently, Chilly Gonzales ventured into a new form of entrepreneurship. A culmination of recent years’ explorations in teaching, Gonzo inaugurated his very own music school: The Gonzervatory. During this all-expenses-paid residential music performance workshop held in Paris, 7 selected students explored Musical Humanism, audience psychology and what it means to be a performing musician in 2018. After a week of intensive coaching, masterclasses and rehearsals, these young musicians performed a concert for an audience of 1500 fans with Chilly Gonzales himself as Master of Ceremony. The Gonzervatory Workshop and Concerts were livestreamed on pan-European TV station Arte Concert to record-breaking audiences (Arte’s 2nd most viewed concert ever). Plans are already being made for the 2019 edition.
TOUR DATES
2018
Fri 31 Aug – GENEVA – Centre des Arts of École Internationale de Genève
Sat 01 Sept – GENEVA – Centre des Arts of École Internationale de Genève
Sun 02 Sept – GENEVA – Centre des Arts of École Internationale de Genève
Fri 7 Sept – LONDON – Cadogan Hall
Sat 8 Sept – LEEDS – Howard Assembly Rooms
Mon 10 Sept – LONDON – Queen Elizabeth Hall (Southbank Center)
Tue 11 Sept – MANCHESTER – Royal Northern College of Music
Tue 18 Sept – KÖLN 1LIVE – SPIII Pop Music Masterclass Concert LIVESTREAM
Sat 22 Sept – PARIS – Collège des Bernardins
Mon 24 Sept – PARIS – Salle Gaveau
Tue 25 Sept – PARIS – Salle Gaveau
Wed 26 Sept – PARIS – Salle Gaveau
Thur 18 Oct – TORONTO – Koerner Hall
Sat 20 Oct – TORONTO – Koerner Hall
Mon 22 Oct – OTTAWA – Southam Hall at National Arts Center
Wed 24 Oct – QUEBEC CITY – Palais Montcalm
Fri 26 Oct – MONTREAL – Maison Symphonique at Place des Arts
Sat 27 Oct – MONTREAL – Maison Symphonique at Place des Arts
Wed 21 Nov – BERLIN – Haus der Berliner Festspiele
Thur 22 Nov – BERLIN – Haus der Berliner Festspiele
Fri 23 Nov – BERLIN – Haus der Berliner Festspiele
Sat 8 Dec – AMSTERDAM – Koninklijk Theatre Carré
Tue 11 Dec – HAMBURG – Laeiszhalle
Sat 15 Dec – DORTMUND – Konzerthaus
Fri 28 Dec – KÖLN – Philharmonie
Sat 29 Dec – KÖLN – Philharmonie
2019
Fri 15 Feb – BORDEAUX – Théâtre Femina
Sat 16 Feb – BORDEAUX – Théâtre Femina
Sun 17 Feb – TOULOUSE – La Halle aux Grains
Sun 3 Mar – LUXEMBOURG – Philharmonie
Tue 5 March – BRUXELLES – Bozart
Fri 8 March – FRANKFURT – Alte Oper
Sun 10 March – STUTTGART – Beethovensaal
Thur 21 March – DÜSSELDORF – Tonhalle
Mon 22 April – LEIPZIG – Gewandhaus
Tue 23 April – BERLIN – Philharmonie
Sat 27 April – MUNICH – Herkulessaal
