Born: October 4, 1996 (Geneva, Switzerland)

Spanish/Dutch pianist Albert Cano Smit won First Prize in the 2017 International Piano Competition. He has been praised as "a moving young poet" (Le Devoir of Montreal) noted for his captivating performances, storytelling quality and nuanced musicality.

Orchestral appearances include: the Brahms Concerto No. 2 with the Las Vegas Philharmonic conducted by Donato Cabrera; and performances with the Seattle Symphony, Boca del Rio Philharmonic, Orquesta Sinfonica de Barcelona, Catalonia National Orchestra and Glacier Symphony. He has also appeared with the San Diego Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Manchester Camerata, Nottingham Youth Orchestra, and American Youth Symphony.

Albert Cano Smit has given solo recitals at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco, for the Steinway Society The Bay Area in San Jose, New York's Salon de Virtuosi, and Bravo! Vail Festival, and has been in residency at the Tippet Rise Art Center. He has given recitals abroad in Xiamen, China, in France at the Wissembourg Festival and Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, at Germany's Rheingau Music Festival, and throughout Spain. Mr. Cano Smit tours with violinist William Hagen in venues throughout the U.S. and in Germany, and with flutist Anthony Trionfo he has performed in New York's Merkin Concert Hall and the Morgan Library & Museum, and at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater in Washington, DC.

An advocate for new music, Cano Smit has premiered numerous solo works on his recital programs, commissioned for him by Stephen Hough (Naumburg commission) Miquel Oliu, and Katherine Balch. He has given four-hand performances with Jean-Yves Thibaudet at the Wallis Annenberg Center Hall and Zipper Hall, taken part in the Jupiter Chamber Players in New York and the Bridgehampton Chamber Festival, and performed with artists including Gary Hoffman, Pinchas Zukerman, Lun Li, Grace Park among others. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with such ensembles as the Ebene, Szymanowski, Casals, Cosmos, Gerhard, and Verona Quartets and has released an album of Austrian viola music for Champs Hills with Emma Wernig.

In 2019 he was named a winner in the Young Concert Artists International Auditions. Other awards and honors include being selected as a Finalist and CMIM Grant winner at the Concours Musical International de Montreal, an Emerging Artist 2023 by Symphony magazine, The Paul A. Fish Memorial Prize, the Alexander Kasza-Kasser Concert Prize for support of his Kennedy Center debut, the Friends of Music Prize (NY), and the Sunday Musicale Prize (NJ).

A polyglot who speaks five languages, Albert was born in Geneva, the son of a Dutch mother and Spanish father. He left home at age 9 to join the Escolania de Montserrat choir school. Cano Smit began his collegiate studies with Ory Shihor at the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles. He also studied at The Juilliard School with Robert McDonald where he completed an Artist Diploma and Masters degree and received the Arthur Rubinstein Prize in Piano. Other notable mentors include Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Richard Goode and Stephen Hough. He is an alum of the Verbier Festival Academy and Ravinia Steans Institute.

As part of his Naumburg prize, Albert received a commission, Partita for piano by Stephen Hough, that was premiered on Albert's Naumburg concert when he made his Carnegie Hall debut in Weill Recital Hall on October 15, 2019.