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BIOGRAPHY

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A musician who has been praised as “a moving young poet” (Le Devoir of Montreal), Spanish/Dutch pianist Albert Cano Smit enjoys a growing international career on the orchestral, recital, and chamber music stages. Noted for his captivating performances, storytelling quality and nuanced musicality, the First Prize winner of the 2019 Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions has appeared as a soloist with the Seattle Symphony, Las Vegas Philharmonic, the San Diego Symphony, Montréal Symphony, the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, Orchestra of St Luke’s, Barcelona Symphony, Catalonia National Orchestra, Manchester Camerata.

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Recital highlights have included his Carnegie Hall debut presented by The Naumburg Foundation, his Merkin Concert hall debut presented by Young Concert Artists, recitals at San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, Paris’ Fondation Louis Vuitton (the performance was streamed live globally), the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater in Washington, DC, Germany’s Rheingau Music Festival, and return performances at the Steinway Society in San Jose and Auditori de Barcelona. He has been in residence at France’s Festival de Musique de Wissembourg for seven years, a piano fellow at Bravo! Vail Music Festival and Tippet Rise Art Center, and has had his recital debut in Asia at Xiamen’s Banlam Grand Theater.

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Albert has been presented in recital by Festival Bach Montréal, University of Florida Performing Arts, the Krannert Center (Urbana, IL), and Matinée Musicale (Cincinnati, OH). He recently premiered Katherine Balch’s "Spolia" with flutist Anthony Trionfo taking them to the Morgan Library and Carnegie Hall. Recent recitals with Trionfo have included the Alys Stephens Center, Kravis Center, Evergreen Museum & Library, and others. Cano Smit is set to continue touring with violinist William Hagen, with whom he has recorded the CD “Danse Russe”.

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During the 23-24 season Albert will appear in recital and chamber music performances returning to the Miami International Piano Festival, at the Cosmos Club (Washington, DC), Friends of Music Concerts (Sleepy Hollow, NY), Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota (Sarasota, FL), and Abbey Church Events (Lacey, WA), and will also participate in the inaugural chamber music ensemble of YCA on Tour. He will appear as soloist playing Mozart’s Piano Concerto N.23 with the Rochester Philharmonic and Colorado Springs Philharmonic, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Waterbury Symphony and Gulfport Symphony, and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major with the Greenwich Symphony and Albany Symphony, and Ravel Piano Concerto in G with the Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra.

 

An advocate for new music, Albert has premiered numerous solo works on his recital programs, commissioned for him by Stephen Hough, Miquel Oliu, and Katherine Balch. He has given four hand performances with Jean-Yves Thibaudet at the Wallis Annenberg Center Hall and Zipper Hall, taken part in the Jupiter Chamber Players in New York and the Bridgehampton Chamber Festival, and performed with such artists as Gary Hoffman, Pinchas Zukerman, Lun Li, Zlatomir Fung, Kevin Zhu, Leonard Fu and Lev Sivkov. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with such ensembles as the Ebene, Szymanowski, Casals, Cosmos, Gerhard, and Verona Quartets, and has released an album of Austrian viola music for Champs Hills with Emma Wernig.

 

In 2017, Albert was First Prize winner at the Walter W. Naumburg Piano Competition, and a Finalist and CMIM Grant winner at the Concours Musical International de Montréal. Additional special prizes at the 2019 Young Concert Artists International Auditions include The Paul A. Fish Memorial Prize, the Alexander Kasza-Kasser Concert Prize for support of his Kennedy Center debut, the Friends of Music Concert Prize (NY), and the Sunday Musicale Prize (NJ).

 

A polyglot who speaks five languages, Albert was born in Geneva, the son of a Dutch mother and Spanish father. He left home at 9 to join the Escolania de Montserrat choir school, where hours of rehearsal every day strongly affected his musical development. Albert recently completed an Artist Diploma and Masters Degree with Robert McDonald at the Juilliard School, where he was awarded the 2020 Rubinstein Prize for Piano. He also holds a BA in Piano Performance from the Colburn School with Ory Shihor, and studied at Chetham’s School of Music with Marta Karbownicka and Graham Caskie. He is an alum of the Verbier Festival Academy and Ravinia Steans Institute. He currently resides in New York City.

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