His intellectual acuity and hard work also made him an accomplished student. After skipping four grade levels in January 2011, he graduated from Western Canada High School and went on to study for a Bachelor of Music degree at the Glenn Gould School of Music in Toronto on a full scholarship. He continued to polish his technique as a pianist and touring the world, averring that he's quickly bored after just a few weeks at home and is itching to set off again. In October 2011 he signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon, releasing the first recording in the series in May 2012 - Mozart’s Piano Concertos no. 20, K. 466 and no. 21, K. 467 under Maestro Christian Zacharias with the Kammerorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. He has spoken of the opportunity to record with the historic label as a great privilege, recognising how the collaboration "reinforces the idea that music is larger than any single artist". Speaking of Mozart himself, he finds that the composer
often wrote very different works at one and the same time. Even so, the carefree surface of the C major Concerto conceals beneath it traces of the dark energy of the D minor Concerto. Conversely, this last-named piece also has something of the lightness of the C major Concerto. That’s why I was so keen to record both these pieces together.
While it may seem that Mozart and Chopin are something of an obsession for the young pianist, absorbing a relatively large area of the scope of his interests, Lisiecki insists that his interests are varied and he reaches for various composers at various points in time. It is the comparisons with a young Mozart or Chopin that has formulated an association in the minds of the public that he incorporates these masters for the modern piano. As for his approach to style, Lisiecki says his aim is always to perform the music in a way that carries forward the beauty and brilliance of the original composition, rather than highlight any particular quirks or effects that would grant him a recognisable style. In this way he has demonstrated that he is capable of rendering an original composition remarkably close to the way it was intended to be played by the composer himself. Lisiecki does not add anything, he does not take anything away from a piece. He comes marvelously close to a "pure" performer, however his unmistakable exuberance crowns this very straightforward style of great skill and concentration.
He has been awarded prestigious awards in his native Canada, including the 2010 Révélations Radio-Canada Musique and the 2011 Jeune Artiste des Radios Francophones, along with numerous international honours. He has also been the youngest winner in history of the Canadian Music Festival (2008) and OSM Standard Life Competition (2009)and Jan has won numerous major Canadian music titles. In 2009 he was awarded Grand Prize at the OSM Standard Life Competition (the youngest in history). In 2008 he won the Grand Award in both the Canadian Music Competitions (June 2008) and (August 2008, as the youngest in history). Jan was a prize winner in seven international competitions in the USA, Italy, England, and Japan.
Jan is also involved in charity work, donating his time and performance to such organisations as the David Foster Foundation, the Polish Humanitarian Organization and the Wish Upon a Star Foundation. In June 2008 he was appointed a National Youth Representative by UNICEF Canada.
Performance highlights for the 2011/12 season include the opening concert of the Orchestre de Paris under Paavo Järvi at Salle Pleyel, and debuts with the BBC Symphony at the Barbican in London, the Leipzig Radio Symphony at Leipzig Gewandhaus and the Göteborgs Symfoniker. He tours Europe and Brazil before heading to Japan in the autumn with concerts in Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka, then the United States and Canada. In 2012 he makes his debut with the Accademia de Santa Cecilia Orchestra under Antonio Pappano, and the New York Philharmonic under Daniel Harding. In early 2013 he will begin recording his second Deutsche Grammaphon recording - this time the concertos of Chopin.
Jan Lisiecki performs works from the album at the 2012 edition of the Chopin and his Europe Festival in Warsaw under Christian Zacharias and Sinfornia Varsovia (24.08.2012, 7:00 p.m.).