Hubert Rutkowski’s musical interpretations are influenced by his thorough study of the particular ‘piano school’ aesthetic attributed to the late 19th century. Therefore, it is the pianistic tradition of Frederyk Chopin, Theodor Leschetizky, and subsequently influenced pianists such as Karol Mikuli, Moritz Rosenthal, Raul Koczalski and Artur Schnabel, that forms the basis of his artistic identitiy.
He won the International Chopin Piano Competition in Hannover (2007). He also received the “Medalla per Unanimitat” distinction at the International Maria Canals Piano Competition in Barcelona (2006). In 2013 he was awarded the prestigious Berenberg Cultural Prize in Hamburg.
The pianist is a graduate of the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, the class of professor Anna Jastrzębska-Quinn. In 2005-2010 he completed postgraduate studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg, in the class of professor Evgeni Koroliov.
For quite some time Hubert Rutkowski has been passionate about historical pianos from the 19th century. Both in his capacity of a pianist and a piano teacher he has been working with the collection of historical pianos at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg. In 2013 he recorded the early piano works of Debussy on the 1880 Erard piano for Piano Classics (CD). The 1847 Pleyel piano recording of Chopin‘s piano works followed in 2018.
Another significant moment in Hubert Rutkowski’s career was the recording of piano works by Julian Fontana, Chopin’s friend and pupil, as well as of piano pieces by Theodor Leschetizky for Acte Préalable Label (2007, 2008). In the Chopin Year 2010, he released an album “Pupils of Chopin“ on the Naxos Label, featuring with piano works composed by Chopin’s students. Since then, he has been performing in Europe, Asia, Latin American and the USA, including at festivals such as the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival, Piano Festival in Husum Castle, Mozart Festival in Warsaw, Ars Longa Festival in Moscow, Paderewski Festival in Los Angeles, Artur Rubinstein Festival in Łódź, and at the Paderewski International Music Festival in Warsaw.
He has also performed with eminent soloists and conductors, including Lilya Zilberstein, Alexei Lubimov, Łukasz Borowicz, Martin Haselböck, Jamie Phillips and José Maria Florêncio.
Hubert Rutkowski is the artistic director of the Chopin Festival in Hamburg, as well as the director of the Theodor Leschetizky International Piano Competition at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg.
He has been a professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg as one of the youngest professors in Germany since 2010, and he became the head of its piano department in January 2014.