Tom Borrow is Named Musical America's New Artist Of The Month

After his tremendously successful US debut with the Cleveland Orchestra, under conductor Thierry Fischer, last month, Musical America has named the Israel pianist Tom Borrow as the 'New Artist Of The Month'. In his companion essay, writer Zachary Lewis describes Borrow in Cleveland as having left "a profound impression as a serious, gifted musician" and hails his playing as "incandescent". Borrow, who has previously been named 'One To Watch' both by Gramophone and International Piano and who was recently named a BBC New Generation Artist, follows in the footsteps of other New Artists of the Month, a list that has included musicians of the calibre of Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla and Robert Trevino.

Lewis's article for Musical America follows his review for the Cleveland Plain Dealer of Borrow's Cleveland performance of the Ravel Piano Concerto in G (in the event only one of the three scheduled concerts took place due to a case of Covid in the orchestra). On that occasion, he had written, "The young Israeli pianist made a sensational debut with the Cleveland Orchestra and captured the spirit of the work and the heart of a sizeable crowd in one fell swoop. In a world teeming with gifted pianists, Borrow stands out with a touch that's both light and powerful, and supremely incandescent. For a work like the Ravel Concerto, a swirl of Neo-Classical gestures and jazz, it's as if he were uniquely born and bred...Never did Borrow sound in anything less than complete command."

Other reviewers were similarly positive and unanimous in their effusiveness, among them from Seen And heard International ("An electrifying debut"), La Scena Musicale ("Borrow will become a major star...What a pianist! I can't recall ever hearing such verve and precision in a performance of the piece.") and Bachtrack ("Brilliant debut...a performance that was both technically brilliant and astonishing in its perceptive musicality...I would sign up instantly to hear him again.")

The US success followed a France debut, at the Festival Piano aux Jacobins in Toulouse, that saw Diapason magazine write, "He already has everything of a great...brought the audience to its knees", ResMusica call him "the revelation of the festival" and resulted in an immediate invitation from the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse for the very next week.

Borrow will return to the US in January, for the Seattle Chamber Music Society's Winter Festival, where he will play alongside Artistic Director James Ehnes and others. Other upcoming engagements include, later this month Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 5 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under conductor Sakari Oramo; and after Seattle, performances with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra under Giacomo Sagripanti and with the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra, where he will reunite with Thierry Fischer.

Borrow, a graduate of the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music at Tel Aviv University, rose to attention after a dramatic last-minute jump-in with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in 2018, after which invitations followed from, variously, the London Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Santa Cecilia Orchestra, Sao Paulo Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, New Jersey Symphony, Verbier Festival, Wigmore Hall, Vancouver Recital Series and Seattle Chamber Music Festival. Conductors to have invited Borrow include Semyon Bychkov, Fabio Luisi, Sakari Oramo, Xian Zhang, Thierry Fischer, Robert Trevino, Lahav Shani and Omer Wellber.

Read Musical America's New Artist Of The Month article here.

LISTEN to Tom Borrow play the Ravel Piano Concerto in G with the Ulster Orchestra conducted by Jac Van Steen (a broadcast recording, made under socially-distanced conditions, for BBC Radio 3).

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