Kit Armstrong first appeared on the international stage twenty years ago, and has since captivated the music world. Few other young artists can boast his level of accomplishment and breadth of training. Hailed by the New York Times as a »brilliant pianist« who »combines musical maturity and youthful boldness in his exceptional playing«, he has developed his own unique artistic style. His intense engagement with music naturally extends to other arts, as well as science and mathematics.

He recently caused a sensation with his cycle covering 500 years of piano music, conceived for the Ruhr Piano Festival and the Tokyo Spring Festival, among others. Across five recital programmes, he takes listeners on a journey from 1520 to 2020, from William Byrd to the 21st century.

He has worked with many leading conductors, including Christian Thielemann, Herbert Blomstedt, Kent Nagano, Manfred Honeck and Esa-Pekka Salonen. He has performed with some of the world’s finest orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and the NHK Symphony Orchestra. Passionate about chamber music, Kit Armstrong has close artistic ties with singers including Marina Viotti, Christiane Karg, Äneas Humm and Benjamin Appl; the Armida and Schumann Quartets; and violinist Renaud Capuçon. In 2023, he presented a complete recording of all Mozart’s sonatas for piano and violin with Capuçon.

His debut album with Deutsche Grammophon, featuring works by the founding fathers of keyboard music, William Byrd and John Bull, was released in 2021 and won the »Keyboard Instruments« category of the German Record Critics’ Award in April 2021.

Born in Los Angeles in 1992, Armstrong studied at the Curtis Institute of Music and the Royal Academy of Music in London. He began studying composition at Chapman University and physics at California State University at the age of 7, later also studying chemistry and mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania and mathematics at Imperial College London. He earned a Master’s degree in Mathematics from the University of Paris VI. Author Inge Kloepfer has written a biography about Kit Armstrong. The book »Metamorphoses of a Child Prodigy« was published by Berlin Verlag in spring 2024.