Tomasz Ritter – 1st Prize winner of the 1st International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments in Warsaw (2018) and the Musica Antiqua Competition in Brugge (2024).

He was born in 1995 in Lublin (Poland). After graduating from the Szymanowski Complex of Music Schools in Warsaw in the piano class of I. Rumiancewa, Ritter became a student of the Moscow P. I. Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where he studied piano and fortepiano with A. Lubimov and harpsichord with M. Uspienskaya. During his studies, he was also a student of M. Voskresensky. He graduated with honors, receiving the title of “The Best Graduate of 2019”. In 2021 he received a postgraduate diploma with distinction at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg in the class of H. Rutkowski (piano, period piano).

Ritter was nominated for the “Polityka’s Passports” award (an annual Polish cultural award presented by the weekly magazine “Polityka” since 1993) in the “Classical Music” category. He is also the winner of the Artistic Award of E. and K. Penderecki (2018) and the scholarship holder of the “Young Poland” program (2019, 2023).

Period instruments and historically informed performance practice play a significant role in Ritter’s musical life. His first encounter with a historical instrument was at the age of 10 thanks to Czech harpsichord builder P. Šefl. During his education, apart from the studies at the Historical and Modern Performance Practice Department in Moscow, he participated in master courses with M. Bilson, A. Staier, T. Beghin, T. Koch, J. Sonnleitner. Ritter regularly cooperates with many european instrument collections and renowned piano renovators such as P. McNulty or E. Beunk, realising such projects as concerts, recordings, live-streams and other.

At the same time, from his early years he was under influence of modern piano traditions, especially Russian school, studying with I. Rumiancewa, and participating in masterclasses of V. Merzhanov, T. Shebanowa and others.

Tomasz Ritter has performed in many European countries, Japan, USA, Russia and Canada. He has played, among others, with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, {oh!} Historical Orchestra, Bach Collegium Japan, Polish Radio Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia under the baton of such conductors as J. Maksymiuk, M. Suzuki, V. Luks, Ł. Borowicz, A. Duczmal, M. Moś, G. Nowak, M. Pijarowski, D. Vermeulen, I. Hobson; collaborated with Kvarteto Martinů, Stradivari Quartett, Royal String Quartet, Consone Quartet. In 2019 he gave a recital commemorating Arthur Rubinstein at the Carnegie Hall in New York. He also performed in such venues as Warsaw Philharmonic Hall, Suntory Hall, BOZAR in Brussels, Zaryadye Hall and the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory.

In 2014, he released his first album with works by Bach, Beethoven, Szymanowski and Ginastera (Polskie Nagrania Label), and in 2019 a CD with works by Chopin and Kurpinski, published by the Chopin Institute. The newest CD of Tomasz Ritter containing works of Haydn, Lessel, Beethoven, Vorisek and Chopin on a Graf fortepiano, published by Chopin Institute, was released in June 2023.

Apart from performing, Ritter gives lectures and masterclasses, both in Poland and abroad, focusing on the subject of performing on period instruments. During the COVID pandemic, he created a series of videos about 19th century pianos called “Romantic pianos”, available on the internet. In 2019 he took part in an ARTE TV document about Chopin’s life in Warsaw.

Since 2024 he is a teacher of historical piano at The Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz.