Robert Thies, Pianist

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A pianist of “unerring, warm-toned refinement, revealing judicious glimmers of power,” [Los Angeles Times] Robert Thies (Theece) is an artist renowned for his consummate musicianship and poetic temperament. He first captured worldwide attention in 1995 when he won the Gold Medal at the Second International Prokofiev Competition in St. Petersburg, Russia. With this victory, Thies became the only American pianist to win first prize in a Russian piano competition since Van Cliburn’s famed triumph in Moscow in 1958. This victory brought accolades from the White House, Senator Dianne Feinstein, and Governor Pete Wilson, and the Los Angeles City Council declared February 16, 1996 "Robert Edward Thies Day". His win was announced in the International Herald Tribune, and the Los Angeles Times wrote a feature article, "Another American Pianist Invades Russia, Successfully."

Conductor Jorge Mester hailed Robert "a genius", and Maestra JoAnn Falletta touted after a recent performance, "Conducting the Brahms Second Piano Concerto with Robert Thies was one of the most beautiful and deeply satisfying musical experiences of my life."

Thies enjoys a diverse career as an orchestral soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and recording artist. He has already performed forty concerti with orchestras all over the world, including the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic, Liepāja Symphony (Latvia), Mexico City Philharmonic, the National Symphony of Mexico, Auckland Philharmonia (New Zealand), Louisville Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony, Virginia Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Pasadena Symphony, Des Moines Symphony, and the Naples Philharmonic. His concerts have been broadcast throughout the United States, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Bolivia, Hungary, Mexico, and New Zealand.

In 2024 he won a Grammy® nomination for his work as piano soloist and producer on composer Danaë Xanthe Vlasse’s album “Mythologies II”, a recording made with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London.  In July 2025 he returned to London to record James Poulsen’s Piano Concerto with the same orchestra.

As a Steinway Artist, Thies has performed in recital in Germany, France, Austria, Sweden, Croatia, Mexico, Hungary, Bolivia, and China. Critics have called him a “sincere artist”, noting how he performs in a manner to draw focus to the composer and to the music, rather than to himself. In May 1999, he was honored with a special invitation to perform in the Hermitage Theater in St. Petersburg, Russia, built for Empress Catherine the Great. During the fall of 1997 Mr. Thies worked alongside distinguished late Polish composer Henryk Górecki in the United States premiere of his Piano Sonata. This collaboration was later documented in a 2012 Polish documentary entitled Please Find Henryk Mikołaj Górecki.

A dedicated chamber musician, Thies is highly sought after as a recital partner and has performed at over a dozen music festivals, including regular invitations to the International Piatigorsky Cello Festival. He is the Artistic Director of the South Bay Chamber Music Society in Los Angeles, and in 2013, he was appointed Director of Chamber Music at the European American Musical Alliance (EAMA) in Paris, France. He is the founder of the Thies Consort, an ensemble that performs programs with a stylistic thread. An avid proponent of art song, he served on the faculty of the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Graz, Austria, coaching singers and pianists in German Lieder alongside his mentor, Harold Heiberg. Thies has also appeared with many outstanding singers in recital, including LA Opera baritone, Ryan McKinny, in a performance of Schubert’s great opus, Winterreise.

Active in the film recording industry in Los Angeles, Thies has worked with film composers John Williams, James Newton Howard, James Horner, Danny Elfman, and Mychael Danna, among others. His playing can be heard prominently in the John Williams’ score to the Spielberg film, The Fabelmans, as well as the scores to Concussion, Fracture, The Life of Pi, and Fifty Shades Freed. In 2024, he performed the premiere of Maria Newman’s Rhapsody for a Golden Age with Leonard Slatkin conducting at Walt Disney Concert Hall. At the same venue in 2022 he was a featured soloist in a performance celebrating the music of Basil Poledouris. In 2017 he was a featured soloist at the Hollywood Bowl in Philip Glass’s score to Jane, a documentary about Jane Goodall. In 2004 Danny Elfman invited Thies as a featured pianist to record his concert piece: Serenada Schizophrana.

Thies has been featured on over 35 concert recordings, including ten recordings for Yamaha Disklavier. He has premiered and recorded works written for him, such as Stu Phillip's Variations for Piano and Orchestra, Kevin Kaska's Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra, and Grammy®-winning composer, Danaë Xanthe Vlasse’s Andromeda.

With a lifelong interest in improvisation and composition, Thies’ recordings extend beyond the classical realm. His recording of Difference, with Croatian flutist, Damjan Krajacic led the groundwork for the creation of five critically reviewed albums together called Blue Landscapes, Music for a Quieter Place. A winner of three Global Music Awards, these albums are collections of ambient instrumental compositions and improvisations, influenced and informed by his classical roots and an interest in the diverse styles of many musicians, including those on the ECM and Windham Hill labels.

Mr. Thies is sought after as a master class teacher, chamber music coach, lecturer, and adjudicator across the globe. His students have won international competitions and been accepted to major music conservatories around the country, and he is a frequent guest lecturer for various branches of the Music Teachers Association of California. Passionate about a pianist’s role in the chamber sonata and art song repertoire, he has written and published a number of articles, including “I am Not an Accompanist” and “Might We Accompany Each Other?” for the California Music Teacher and NYSTA publications.

Though born on the East Coast, Thies makes a home in Los Angeles. His primary teachers were Robert Turner and Daniel Pollack, both protégés of the legendary Russian pedagogue, Madame Rosina Lhevinne.