Biografie Ramon
Ramon van Engelenhoven (1995) started playing the piano at the age of six and pursued his studies at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, where he completed his Master’s degree in 2019 with the highest possible grade. He studied there with Frank Peters and also worked with Jan Wijn and Naum Grubert. Ramon attended masterclasses with renowned musicians such as Alexander Gavrylyuk, Boris Berman, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, and Paul Badura-Skoda.
From a young age, Ramon has won prizes in various competitions, including the first prize at the International Steinway Piano Competition (2012) and the first prize at the Prinses Christina Concours (2013). In 2015, he won the Grand Finale of the Young Pianist Foundation Competition. Additionally, he received the ‘Grand Prix Youri Egorov’ as the very first laureate, an award given only when the winner is recognized as having international potential. He also won the audience prize as a finalist of ‘Dutch Classical Talent’ in the 2019/2020 season, leading to a tour of prominent Dutch concert halls.
Ramon frequently performs on major concert stages, including Tivoli Vredenburg, Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, Muziekgebouw Eindhoven, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, where he made his recital debut in the Amsterdam Piano Series in 2023. He has also performed internationally at venues such as the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg and the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. As a chamber musician, he collaborates with musicians such as Lucie Horsch, Laetitia Gerards, and Sylvia Huang. He is also frequently aligned with projects of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and its musicians. He gave a rapturously received concert with Camerata RCO (members of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra) at Salle Bourgie in 2023 (5 stars on Bachtrack).
Ramon also participated as a pianist in the acclaimed ‘Toonzetters’ project, where twenty new works by young Dutch composers were performed nationwide in an extensive tour, culminating in a CD recording with the label 7Mountain Records in 2023. Following this project, Ramon will premiere a major new work by Ramin Amin Tafreshi at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
He has performed as a soloist with orchestras such as the Philharmonie Südwestfalen, the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, the Real Filharmonía de Galicia, Phion (Orchestra of Gelderland), and the Noord-Nederlands Orkest. In these performances, he collaborated with conductors such as Nabil Sheheta, Tianyi Lu, Ed Spanjaard, and Rolf Verbeek. He will make his debut with The Hague Philharmonic in 2025.
In 2018, he was selected to take part in the talent development project ‘AVROTROS VIRTUOOS’, making recordings of works by Chopin, Liszt, Skrjabin, Debussy, and Poulenc. Since then, he has been a frequent guest on various radio programs on NPO Klassiek. He has also made frequent appearances on Television, a highlight being his debut at the Prinsengrachtconcert in 2023, where he performed alongside internationally acclaimed pianist Paul Lewis.
In 2024 he released his internationally acclaimed debut solo album featuring works by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. In addition to original piano works, the album includes arrangements of his opera and film music for which he obtained permission and the support from the Korngold family. Not only did Ramon receive an ‘Edison Klassiek’ nomination for best debut album, both the Italian ‘MUSICA magazine’ and ‘Film Score Monthly’ gave it five stars and ‘MusicWeb International’ selected the album as ‘Recording of the Month’. His transcription of music from ‘Das Wunder der Heliane’ will be officially published by Schott Music.