Mehdi Ghazi

Mehdi Ghazi has been described as a “sensitive pianist” (Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times) and a “great pianist” whose “sustained artistry… evoked nothing less than Wilhelm Kempff” (Claude Gingras, La Presse, Montréal).

A prizewinner at the 2020 Campillos International Piano Competition and a medalist at the 2014 Hilton Head International Piano Competition, Ghazi also won Second Prize and the Audience Award at the 2018 Orford Music Competition. In 2015, he was named one of CBC’s “Top 30 Classical Musicians Under 30” in Canada.

As both a soloist and chamber musician, he has performed on prestigious stages around the world — including UNESCO’s Grand Hall in Paris at the age of 12. He has collaborated with renowned conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Yoav Talmi, John Morris Russell, Pavel Baleff, and Raffi Armenian, and with artists including pianist Conrad Tao, violinist Valeriy Sokolov, cellist Aleksey Shadrin, singer Julie Nasrallah, and the wind ensemble Pentaèdre. In 2010, he was invited by the Glenn Gould Foundation to perform for the Governor General of Canada in a tribute to Glenn Gould. Ghazi is frequently featured on radio, television, and in the media, including CBC, Classical 96.3, and The Globe and Mail.

A graduate with highest honors from the Montreal Music Conservatory, the Glenn Gould School, and the University of Montreal, Ghazi studied under pianists John Perry, André Laplante, Marc Durand, and Jean Saulnier. He also participated in masterclasses with internationally acclaimed artists such as Daniel Barenboim, Leon Fleisher, Emanuel Ax, Menahem Pressler, Dang Thai Son, Michel Beroff, Jean-Philippe Collard, Robert McDonald, and John O’Conor.

In addition to his performance career, Ghazi is a dedicated educator, teaching piano at the University of Montreal’s Faculty of Music, Cégep de Joliette, Collège Lionel-Groulx, and the Montreal Music Conservatory’s pré-conservatoire division.

Ghazi is also regularly invited to serve as an adjudicator for both live rounds and preliminary screenings of numerous national and international piano competitions.