Nikola Meeuwsen

PIANIST

Photo: Melle Meivogel

Nikola Meeuwsen (2002) has already had a remarkably mature career. He made his full-length solo debut at the Concertgebouw on 19 January 2024, performing works by Schubert, Beethoven, Brahms, and Schumann. In 2025, he will perform as a soloist with the Residentie Orkest for the third time.

 At 20, Nikola became the youngest musician ever to win the Grachtenfestival Prize and was the artist in residence of this Amsterdam festival in 2023.


Nikola Meeuwsen is expanding his horizons by performing internationally. In October 2023, he played Grieg's Piano Concerto at the renowned Dvořák Hall of the Rudolfinum in Prague, as part of the Young Prague international festival for young talent. He also performed Beethoven's Fifth Piano Concerto with the Lithuanian National Orchestra in Dortmund in November 2023. Ten days later, Nikola performed Mozart's Concert for Two Pianos on the Flagey stage in Brussels with Sinfonia Varsovia and his piano teacher Avedis Kouyoumdjian, with whom he has already enjoyed performing. Nikola has also performed as a soloist in Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto, Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto, 

Clara Schumann's Piano Concerto, and Beethoven's First and Third Piano Concertos.


At the 2022 Gwyl Machynlleth Festival in Wales, Nikola gave a solo recital after artistic director and pianist Julius Drake heard Nikola play Scriabin's Fourth Sonata in the Great Hall of the Concertgebouw. 


In June 2023 he played a concert in Scotland. The Times praised his recital in a five-star review: "Meeuwsen's supple technique drew out the delicacy and beauty of everything he played, and the evanescence of sound in Ravel's Tombeau de Couperin was enormously moving."


Nikola believes that communication is the essence of making music. This is why he admires legendary pianists such as Vladimir Horowitz, Sviatoslav Richter, Glenn Gould and Arthur Rubinsten, as well as living legends such as Grigory Sokolov, Ivo Pogorelich and Enrico Pace, who engage in a dialogue with their audiences and do not hesitate to express their innermost selves through music. For Nikola, communication with fellow musicians is also an indispensable source of inspiration. He loves the chamber music stage as much as the spotlight as a soloist. 


Nikola has performed with many leading young talents such as Noa Wildschut, Benjamin Kruithof, SongHa Choi and Alexander Warenberg. He has also performed with his teacher and inspiration, Enrico Pace. Their performance of Liszt's transcription for two pianos of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony was one of the highlights of Amare's 2019 Beethoven Festival. Further concerts with Pace are planned.


From a young age, Nikola has been an exceptional performer. He won the Steinway Competition in 2012 and the Royal Concertgebouw Competition in 2014, both at the age of nine. He has given solo recitals in various locations in the Netherlands and abroad, including Milan, Bologna, Trieste, Faro, and Imola. Nikola has also been invited to perform at several festivals. The Storioni Festival, the Schiermonnikoog Chamber Music Festival, the International Chamber Music Festival Ede, Festival Classique, the February Festival and Classical NOW! are among the events he has participated in. 

In 2023, he performed a solo recital and played with the Ragazze Quartet at the St. Magnus Festival in the Orkney Islands. He has performed with many renowned musicians and ensembles including the Matangi Quartet, The Chianti Ensemble, Alexander Kerr, Augustin Dumay, Vladimir Mendelssohn and Nobuko Imai. He has performed as a piano duo with pianists such as Igor Roma, Anna Fedorova, Thomas Beijer, Avedis Kouyoumdjian, Nicolas van Poucke and Enrico Pace.


 Since 2010 Nikola has been studying with Marlies van Gent and since 2014 with Enrico Pace at the Accademia Pianistica in Imola. Currently Nikola is also a student at the Queen Elisabeth Chapel in Brussels with Frank Braley and Avedis Kouyoumdjian. 


At home in The Hague, Nikola practices on a beautiful Bösendorfer grand piano on loan from the Nationaal Muziekinstrumenten Fonds (NMF).