Biography

Dubbed by The Australian as the 'Piano Man,' Indonesian-Australian pianist Calvin Abdiel is establishing himself as one of the finest young musicians internationally. He has given high-profile performances in Australia, Austria, Russia, Indonesia, Germany, Denmark, and Switzerland.

His debut album, Themes and Variations, released by Decca Australia in 2024, features Schumann’s Études Symphoniques, Liszt's Reminiscences of Don Giovanni, and Brahms' Paganini Variations, earning critical acclaim. The American Record Guide praises Abdiel's "varied musical palette from dreamy Eusebius to passionate Florestan" and describes him as a "commander of the piano" with "jaw-dropping technique."

In the 2021 Sydney International Piano Competition, Abdiel won the George Frederick Boyle Third Prize, the Nancy Weir Best Australian Pianist Prize, and the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust overseas scholarship. He was the youngest competitor and the first Australian in nearly 20 years to reach the grand finale. The Australian’s Matthew Westwood described him as a young pianist with “extraordinary pianistic authority.” In 2022, he embarked on a debut recital tour across NSW, ACT, and Victoria, presented by the Sydney International Piano Competition.

Born in Jakarta, Indonesia, Abdiel developed an early passion for classical music, picking out his first sounds on the piano at age five. He made his orchestral debut in 2017 with the St. Petersburg State Capella Symphony Orchestra and has since performed with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and the Swiss orchestra Les Chambrites, working with conductors including Anatoliy Rybalko, Gerard Schwarz, Richard Davis, Benedetto Montebello, Roger Benedict and Paul Terracini.

His competition successes include 2nd prize at the Steps to Mastery International Competition (St. Petersburg, 2017), 2nd prize at the Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition (Australia, 2017), 3rd prize in the Val de Travers International Piano Competition (Switzerland, 2018), and 1st prize at the Ananda Sukarlan Award International Piano Competition (Jakarta, 2020). As the 2021 SCM Piano Unit Concerto Competition winner, he performed Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Sydney Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra in 2022. That year, he was awarded the Frank Albert Prize for Music.

His live performances have been recorded by ABC Classic FM and Fine Music FM. In 2022, he performed Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 4 with the G20 Orchestra at the UNESCO-listed Candi Borobudur, broadcast on Indonesian national television (TVRI). More recently, he won 3rd prize at the 27th Mauro Paolo Monopoli Prize International Piano Competition (Italy, 2024) and performed with the Orchestra ICO Suoni del Sud.

Abdiel recently completed his Master of Arts degree with Prof. Eldar Nebolsin at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler. He previously earned his Bachelor of Music (Performance) with First Class Honours at the Sydney Conservatorium under Natalia Ricci.

As a chamber musician, he performed at the Canberra International Music Festival in 2021 and the Out West Piano Festival in 2023. In 2024, he toured NSW and the ACT with violinist Cedar Newman. He was also the founding member and former conductor of the youth orchestra, Cantate Deo Chamber Orchestra (2020–2023). His musical activities have been supported by scholarships, including the SCM George and Margaret Henderson Overseas Scholarship, the Sydney Eisteddfod Kawai Piano Scholarship, the Theme and Variation Foundation, the Institut Français d'Indonésie (IFI), and the International Piano Foundation “Theo Lieven.”

He has participated in masterclasses with esteemed pianists including Orli Shaham, Justas Dvarionas, Michael Endres, and Vyacheslav Gryaznov. In 2017, he performed in a Musica Viva-sponsored masterclass with Angela Hewitt. In 2019, the Henderson Piano Scholarship enabled him to study in Weimar and Portugal with Ferenc Rados, Dénes Várjon, and Boris Berman. As a scholarship holder at the Lieven Piano Summer School (2022, 2023), he studied with Andreas Staier, Lilya Zilberstein, Paul Roberts, and Arie Vardi. In 2023, an IFI scholarship enabled him to study Ravel’s works with Pascal Rogé in Nice, France.