ERIC HIMY has intrigued five continents for a generation. He has played to critical acclaim in the United States, Argentina, Belgium, Bulgaria, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, France, Morocco, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, and Slovenia. Mr. Himy has been heard most notably at Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, Carnegie Recital Hall, The Frick Collection, The Phillips Collection, Salle Gaveau in Paris and he gave the first recitals of this millennium in the famous Opera House "Teatro Amazonas" of Manaus, Brazil. He has also played in joint recital with Gary Hoffman, Garrick Ohlsson, and Jose Ramos Santana, and has worked with such conductors as Baker, Baudo, Bay, Bergman, Davies, Jaffe, Koering, Loebel, Manahan, Massini, Rink, Schemmerhorn, Stanger, Wit and Wolff. Mr. Himy began piano studies at age six, giving his first concert at the age of 10. He was guest soloist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at the age of 15, going on to win numerous competitions and awards, including the Gold Medal at the 1988 World Piano Competition in Cincinnati, the Kosciuszko Chopin Prize in New York, and top honors in the 1991 Milosz Magin International Competition in Paris. He was hailed by critics as "a spectacular choice" for his last-minute substitution for Pascal Rogé in a performance of the Saint-Saëns Concerto No. 2 with the Norfolk Symphony Orchestra. After his debut with the National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Hugh Wolff with Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, the Washington Post wrote: "he used this romantic effusion to display an awesome technique and musicianship." Mr. Himy recorded his first CD, "The Art of the Piano Transcription" in France, where he was heard live on Radio France Musique. He is widely acclaimed for his interpretations of the Spanish and French masters such as Albeniz, De Falla, Debussy, Poulenc, Ravel and Saint-Saens. He honored the 125th anniversary of Ravel (2000) by performing his complete piano works highlighted by a performance at the French Embassy in Washington, D.C., on the Embassy Series.

Mr. Himy recently recorded an all-Ravel CD for Ivory Classics (www.ivoryclassics.com) to great critical acclaim. A champion of contemporary composers, He commissioned Gargoyles by the American composer Lowell Liebermann, and played its world premiere at his debut recital in Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall. The New York Times praised his performance as "flawlessly poised with elegance and brilliance." In 1999, he returned to Alice Tully Hall to play the New York premiere of the American composer Marvin Schluger's Jazz Rhapsody with the New York Chamber Symphony. He performed this work in Poland with the Warsaw Symphony Orchestra during their 1999 Autumn Music Festival. Mr. Himy was also chosen by composer Yves Ramette (noted student of Arthur Honegger) to record his complete piano works and his Prelude, Fugue and Postlude with the Czech Radio Symphony in Prague under the direction of Vladimir Valek. He has been heard at several Summer Music Festivals performing Earl Wild's Variations on an American Theme by Stephen Foster ("Doo-Dah"), with Fabio Mechetti at the Chautauqua Summer Festival, and the Lukas Foss Music in the Hamptons with a rare Busoni Concerto. Mr. Himy was invited by conductor Thomas Conlin, 2001 Grammy Award Winner, to perform a recently restored version from manuscript of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue on tour with the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra. He recently recorded this version of Rhapsody in an all-Gershwin CD. Next season he will be performing in France and with several orchestras in the U.S. Mr. Himy studied biochemistry and music at the University of Maryland, and received a Master of Music degree from the famed Juilliard School in New York, having studied with Thomas Schumacher, Adele Marcus and Josef Villa. He has given masterclasses at Princeton, The University of Texas, The University of San Francisco, The University of Virginia, Portland State University and the Evrons Conservatoire in France.

Mr. Himy's discs Homage to Mozart and Homage to Schumann (picked by BBC Music Magazine as "CD of the Month" for December 2007), were released on the Centaur label. His Schumann was called: "Visionary ... the most appealing new Schumann disc heard in a long time." His two more recent CDs, Homage to Debussy and Homage to Liszt, also released by Centaur Records, received excellent reviews from the prestigious American Record Guide in the March/April 2009 issue: “Homage indeed—here's one pianist I would have welcomed a complete [Debussy] cycle from.”

"Flawlessly poised with elegance and brilliance."
—The New York Times