Kit Armstrong
Pianist and composer Kit Armstrong is unusual in that he is frequently active in both those activities. He is the owner of a former church in France where he presents concerts and, during the coronavirus pandemic, broadcast daily videos.
Armstrong was born in Los Angeles on March 5, 1992. As a child, he was oriented toward sciences, mathematics, and languages, but he also taught himself the fundamentals of composition by reading encyclopedia articles. He began taking piano and composition lessons as a child, but throughout his student years, he combined music studies with science and math courses. Armstrong attended Christian schools in the Los Angeles area, taking courses while in high school at California State University at Long Beach in physics and at Chapman University in Orange County in music composition. Armstrong studied biology, physics, mathematics as well as music at Utah State University and then entered the Curtis Institute of Music and the University of Pennsylvania at age 11. He moved to London in 2004, studying at the Royal Academy of Music and earning a bachelor's degree in 2008, and also taking mathematics classes at Imperial College, London. He earned a master's degree in science from Marie Curie University in Paris in 2012. Beginning in 2005, he studied privately with Alfred Brendel.
Armstrong made his debut at eight with the Long Beach Bach Festival Orchestra, and he has appeared as a concerto soloist with top orchestras in Europe, the U.S., and Asia, including the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Tokyo Symphony, and the Baltimore Symphony. He has given solo recitals across Europe and the U.S., including one at Carnegie Hall in 2003 that celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Steinway & Sons company. Armstrong is also an avid chamber music player and vocal accompanist, working with such artists as the Szymanowski Quartet and singers Andreas Wolf, Thomas Bauer, and Christiane Karg. In the summer of 2018, he performed 24 concerts at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival in Germany as the festival's prizewinner-in-residence. In 2012, Armstrong purchased the Church of Sainte-Thérèse-de-l'Enfant-Jésus, Hirson, in France; he has given concerts from there, and during the coronavirus pandemic, presented daily video broadcasts.
Armstrong has composed a symphony, five piano concertos, solo piano music, and a variety of chamber music. His works have been performed by various first-rank ensembles, including the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, which premiered his fortepiano concerto in 2015. They are published by Edition Peters. Armstrong has recorded for the Genuin, Sony Classical, and Deutsche Grammophon labels; his debut on the latter was William Byrd, John Bull: Visionaries of Piano Music, which appeared in 2021.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Discography
13 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Mozart: Sonatas for Piano & Violin
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 23 Jun 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
William Byrd & John Bull: The Visionaries of Piano Music
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 9 Jul 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
William Byrd: The Quadran Paven (Fitzwilliam 133) & Galliard to the Quadran Paven (Fitzwilliam 134)
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 30 Jun 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bull: Een kindeken is ons geboren (MB 14/53) (Musical Moments)
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 14 Oct 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
J.S. Bach: Prelude & Fugue in C Sharp Minor (Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, No. 4) (Musical Moments)
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 4 Dec 2020
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach / Ligeti / Armstrong
Classical - Released by Sony Classical on 27 Sep 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Liszt : Symphonic Scenes
Solo Piano - Released by Sony Classical on 6 Nov 2015
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Sonatas for Piano & Violin
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 23 Jun 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
J.S. Bach: Prelude & Fugue in C Sharp Minor (Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, No. 4), BWV 849 (Musical Moments)
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 4 Dec 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven, Armstrong, Haydn & Liszt: Piano Trios (Movimentos Edition)
Andrej Bielow, Adrian Brendel, Kit Armstrong
Chamber Music - Released by Genuin on 1 May 2012
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
William Byrd & John Bull: The Visionaries of Piano Music
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 9 Jul 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
William Byrd: The Quadran Paven (Fitzwilliam 133) & Galliard to the Quadran Paven (Fitzwilliam 134)
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 30 Jun 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bull: Een kindeken is ons geboren (MB 14/53) (Musical Moments)
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 14 Oct 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo