Peta Stewart
For many musicians, competitions are a way of life as young people set off establishing careers, but for pianist Alexander Ullman, in town to perform with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra and for Cape Town Concert Series to open both seasons this month, winning the prestigious 2017 International Franz Liszt Piano Competition was enough.
This was in 2017 and it was a life-changer transforming the life of the young British pianist, then 26.
“I am so grateful that it opened so many doors for me,” he says, “that I have been able to concentrate on doing what I love… teaching, playing chamber music and recitals, and of course concertos like the 5th Piano Concerto by Beethoven, which I will perform with the CPO under the direction of Jonathan Lo on Thursday, 15 January, 2026, at the Cape Town City Hall.”
“Not for nothing it is called ‘Emperor’,“ he says. “It’s so full of joy, such an outpouring of happiness, so open that you don’t have to hold back with it. You are not mired in the beauty of nostalgic pain – it’s always a pleasure to play. I have played it in India, Norway, Bulgaria and there are meaningful connections that I have made with those places.“ Let’s hope he makes a meaningful connection with Cape Town!
It’s not his first visit here if you can count a stop-off he made a year ago when he was engaged to perform on a cruise liner from Tenerife to Cape Town where he disembarked – and immediately started to connect with the concert life here. The result is both the CPO concert and the recital for Cape Town Concert Series which takes place on Saturday, January 17, at the Baxter Concert Hall at 11:00 and includes works by Liszt and Grieg, He will also perform for the Johannesburg Music Society on Sunday, January 18.
So how did his remarkable professional career start?
“I was talented and I auditioned for a music school,” he says.
It was a sort of serendipitous action, because it was quite difficult to get into a good general school in the UK at the time, he laughs.
“My very supportive parents, who owned just three or four classical CDs and were not involved in the classical music world though had the idea that I could make a go of it. They were so right! I think it was watching the film Fantasia that set it off – I was three or four and just loved it. My dad played the guitar so there was always music around us.”
Purcell School for Young Musicians
The school he auditioned for and won a place is the oldest music school in the UK, the prestigious Purcell School for Young Musicians, outside London.
“The kids I came in contact with were just like me – curious, and hard working and we pushed each other in a supportive way. I grew so much at the school and when I was 13 or 14 I made the decision that I would be a pianist. The older I got the more I knew it was the right decision, as I understood more and more the being a concert pianist was the right choice. My parents supported me, but then they would have supported any choice I made. My teacher at Purcell was also convinced it was for me.
“I believe that life is series of coincidences for which we create the narrative, and I will see how life pans out. I don’t buy into the notion of regret – if life was not panning out I know I would rationalise it away and do something else. I haven’t led a charmed existence. Work fulfils me and I work hard. I approach the piano each day with the idea that I can do better – and pass along what I can.”
You could say life is panning out for him!
Following his years at the Purcell School, he went on to study and the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and the Royal College of Music, completing his Artist Diploma as the “Benjamin Britten Piano Fellow” in 2017. To date it has included appearances at Wigmore Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Gewandhaus in Leipzig, and the Kennedy Center in Washington. He has performed in the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie and Musikverein in Vienna and with many orchestras around the world from the US to China.
Despite the hours he spends at the piano and teaching, he loves to socialise—going to the theatre in London, watching comedy, dining out with friends. His professional time is teaching for about 20 percent of his available time, and giving concerts – concertos, solo recitals, chamber music concerts – for 80 percent.
“I love doing both, for my heart is variety – it’s so stimulating to teach and it helps my playing. It makes me think about things I do instinctively so that people young people understand.
He came to Cape Town after participating in a fundraising concert for Purcell School and also performing at an arts centre on a ranch in Montana, and leaves Cape Town for the Netherlands to take part in a prize-winners’ concert for the Liszt Competition.
The CPO’s programme for the inaugural concert of the CPO’s Summer Festival is a benefit Gala for the Friends of Orchestral Music and is a memorial concert to Ruth Allen, a stalwart supporter of classical music in Cape Town. Also on the programme with the “Emperor” Concerto are the Academic Festival Overture by Brahms and the 8th Symphony by Dvořák.
Who: Pianist Alexander Ullman with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra and Cape Town Concert Series
Where Cape Town City Hall / Baxter Concert Hall
When: 15 January 15 19:30 / 17 January 2026, 11:00
CPO Concert tickets: Artscape Dial-A-Seat 021 421 7695, Here
Dress rehearsal tickets: Here
Concert Series tickets: Here
WS
