Recorded on a Fazioli piano, this programme of old and new classics highlights Ignas Maknickas's extraordinary sensitivity to the nuances of colour, texture, and lyricism that lie latent in both the score and the instrument. An especially interesting feature of the programme is the five miniatures for piano by Lithuanian composer, Alvidas Remesa, based on the Christian mystical concept of stigmata - a challenge for any pianist's sense of touch, drama, and transcendence. This is a debut album not to be missed.

Born in California and raised in Lithuania, pianist Ignas Maknickas studied at the Royal Academy of Music on a full scholarship under Professor Joanna MacGregor CBE. Ignas has appeared as soloist with the Aarhus Symphony, Bloomington Symphony, Lithuanian National Symphony and London Mozart Players, and as a recitalist at the Wigmore Hall and Steinway Hall in London, Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, Charlottenborg Festival Hall in Copenhagen and Lithuanian National Philharmonic in Vilnius. He has won First Prize at the Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition and at the ‘Young Virtuoso’ Piano Competition in Zagreb, as well as the Award for Keyboard at the Royal Overseas League Annual Music Competition. Ignas is currently an Aud Jebsen Piano Fellow and a Leverhulme Arts Scholar, and he holds awards from the ABRSM, Imogen Cooper Music Trust, Munster Trust, Robert Turnbull Piano Foundation, Tillett Trust, Colin Keer Trust, and Hattori Foundation. Ignas is also a current member of the Munster Trust Recital Scheme and the Philip and Dorothy Green Young Artists Scheme. He is currently based in London and is represented by the Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT).