Martin Oei (1996) is a young pianist who wants to share his love of piano music with new audiences.
Therefore, in 2020 he developed the performance “Tom & Jerry in the Garden of Delights” with special footage about the life of Franz Liszt.

He often opts for Romanticism: his favorite composers are Chopin, Liszt, Schubert and Rachmaninov.
He enjoys playing historical instruments such as fortepianos and Erard brand French grand pianos.

He has his own series of Piano Festivals at the Royal Concertgebouw, where he gave his first solo recital at age 16.

Oei started playing the piano at age nine; a year later the Young Musicians Academy of Fontys Conservatory of Music took him on. From then on, subject teacher Jelena Bazova has taught him piano. In 2015, Oei started studying with Martyn van den Hoek (winner of the first edition of the Liszt Competition) of the Utrecht Conservatory, then took lessons from Henry Kelder. He received his Bachelor degree in 2018 and his Master degree in 2020, both cum laude.

Since the age of 12, Oei has won several awards (including Prinses Christina Concours, Jong Muziektalent Nederland, Young Pianist Foundation, Steinway & Sons International Pianocompetition). The municipality of Culemborg presented Oei with the Youth Award “because of his musical (piano) achievements and the positive influence on the city of Culemborg.

With various orchestras, he played Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Tchaikovsky’s first piano concerto, Beethoven’s fifth piano concerto and Schumann’s piano concerto, among others. From 2012 to 2018, Oei formed a duo with 66-year-old Daniel Wayenberg. The duo started with quatre mains compositions and had great success with piano concertos from the Romantic era (Rachmaninov, Liszt and Chopin). He also performed with various chamber music ensembles, including Club Classique and clarinetist Henk de Graaf.

The AVRO invited Wayenberg and Oei to the reopening of the Rijksmuseum. In 2014, they gave seven anniversary concerts for the Music at Home Foundation; Queen Maxima attended the final concert. Oei gave recitals at the Grachtenfestival, Beethovenfest (Bonn) and at Janine Jansen’s International Chamber Music Festival.

At age 16, he was asked to perform the world premiere of Beethoven’s Fantasy Sonata, reconstructed by Cees Nieuwenhuizen at the Royal Concertgebouw. Oei has his own series of Piano Festivals at the Concertgebouw and has performed there with Daniel Wayenberg, Martyn van den Hoek and Klara Wurtz with programs for two grand pianos.

Oei has five CDs to his credit. At 14, T2 Entertainment released his Piano debut; the second CD with Zefir Records featured Beethoven’s Fantasy Sonata on a modern grand piano. In 2013, Zefir released the third CD featuring works by Mozart and Beethoven on an original 1800s fortepiano. On his fourth CD (2016), Oei plays “Chopin a deux” with Daniel Wayenberg on two original Erard grand pianos from the 19th century. This CD included both of Chopin’s piano concertos in the original performance for two grand pianos and received rave reviews in the Volkskrant, NRC, Nederlands Dagblad, Trouw and music magazine Luister. His fifth CD, Worlds of Liszt, contains the pieces from the show Tom and Jerry in the Garden of Delights, recorded on authentic 1846 Erard.

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