William Lehninger Swist at Home - Chopin Scherzo No. 2 in B-Flat Minor Op. 31

William Lehninger Swist, 13, has dual citizenship from the United States and Brazil. He is an honors student in the Young Artist Program at the Lucy Moses School at the Kaufman Music Center in New York City, where he studies with Igal Kesselman.
He began formal study at age 6 with Raquel Moreno at the Brattleboro Music Center in Vermont. Willy debuted as a concerto soloist with the BMC String Orchestra in 2019 and presented 3 solo recitals.
At age 9, William won First Place in the 2021 Charleston International Baroque Music Competition as well as First Place in the 2021 Aegio International Piano Competition. In 2022, he was a semi-finalist for the Kaufman International Youth Piano Competition and selected as a finalist for the Vermont Symphony Orchestra’s Stephen Hough Masterclass with his performance of Haydn’s D-Major Piano Concerto.
In July of 2023 at age 11, William made his Carnegie Hall debut as part of the Hotchkiss Piano Portals Gala Concert. In August, he was selected to participate at the Mozarteum University Summer Academy in Salzburg, Austria. Then on September 30th 2023, Willy performed a full length recital for the “Música no Museu”, series at Palácio São Clemente in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
In March 2024, he performed at the Henry Schneider Young Artists Concert and the Kaufman Center Contemporary Music Festival at Merkin Hall.
William has also previously studied with Vladimir Odinokikh in New Hampshire, and Matthew Maimone of Metropolitan Concert Artists. He has performed in masterclasses for Oxana Yablonskaya, Leonel Morales and Andreas Weber.
When not playing piano, Willy enjoys swimming, riding his bike, taking photography and composing. He has written a piano trio, an etude and is currently working on a waltz.