Eric Lu

“Leeds winner Eric Lu showed an astonishing command of keyboard tone and color.. the sign he is already a true artist. It was a spellbinding experience.” - The Guardian

“Lu’s playing is in a rare class - sensitive and emotionally intuitive.” - BBC Music Magazine

Eric Lu won First Prize at The Leeds International Piano Competition in 2018, the first American to win the prestigious prize since Murray Perahia. He made his BBC Proms debut the following summer at the Royal Albert Hall, and is currently a member of the BBC New Generation Artist scheme. Eric is an exclusive Warner Classics recording artist.

Highlights of the 2020-21 season include debuts with the London Symphony Orchestra (Marin Alsop), Seattle Symphony (Thomas Dausgaard), Oslo Philharmonic (Constantinos Carydis), Royal Stockholm Philharmonic (Thomas Dausgaard) and Detroit Symphony (Eduardo Strausser).  He will also give recitals at the Elbphilharmonie, Queen Elizabeth Hall (International Piano Series), Cologne Philharmonie, Wigmore Hall, NY’s 92nd St Y, and NCPA in Beijing.

In recent seasons, Eric has appeared in recital at Amsterdam Concertgebouw, BOZAR Brussels, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Wigmore Hall, St. Petersburg Philharmonia, Fondation Louis Vuitton Paris, Seoul Arts Centre, Muziekgebouw Eindhoven, Grand Theatre Shanghai, and Sala São Paulo. He has collaborated with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic (Vasily Petrenko), The Hallé (Sir Mark Elder and Tomáš Hanus), Shanghai Symphony (Long Yu), Warsaw Philharmonic (Niklas Willén), Singapore Symphony (Darío Ntaca), and Swedish Chamber Orchestra (Thomas Dausgaard and Martin Frӧst). He also went on tour with the Orchestre National de Lille (Alexander Bloch). In 2019, Eric replaced Martha Argerich in Singapore, and Nelson Freire in São Paulo. 

In 2020, Warner Classics released Eric’s first studio album, featuring the Chopin 24 Preludes, and Schumann’s Geistervariationen. It was met with critical acclaim, including BBC Music Magazine’s ‘Instrumental Record of the Month’.  In 2018, Eric’s winning performances of Beethoven and Chopin from The Leeds with The Hallé and Edward Gardner was released by Warner. He has also released a Mozart, Schubert and Brahms recital on Genuin Classics. 

Born in Massachusetts in 1997, Eric Lu first came to international attention as a prize-winner at the 2015 Chopin International Competition in Warsaw aged just 17. He previously won the 2015 US National Chopin Competition, and was awarded the International German Piano Award in 2017. He is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, studying with Robert McDonald and Jonathan Biss. He is also a pupil of Dang Thai Son. He is now based in Berlin and Boston.