An acclaimed recitalist and soloist, Hamelin has performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, the Montreal Symphony, the London Philharmonic, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic and others, and has appeared in concert at New York City’s Carnegie Hall, at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, at London’s Wigmore Hall, the Royal Albert Hall, at the Berlin Philharmonie and throughout North America, Europe, Australia and the Far East. An exclusive Hyperion Records artist, Hamelin’s legendary discography numbers sixty-five CDs and includes concertos and works for solo piano by composers such as Alkan, Busoni, Godowsky, and Medtner, as well as brilliantly received performances of Brahms, Chopin, Haydn, Liszt and Schumann.

Although primarily a performer, Hamelin has been active as a composer throughout his career. In September 2010, Peters issued his collection 12 Études in all the minor keys, at the same time as a companion disc to that score, Marc-André Hamelin: Études and other works (Hyperion CD A67789). In addition to these 12 études, Peters has published Con intimissimo sentimento, a cycle of seven pieces; and Theme and Variations (Cathy’s Variations). Hamelin has also produced an arrangement of Zequinha de Abreu's Tico-Tico No Fubá and written three pieces for playerpiano, among other works.

The recipient of a lifetime achievement prize by the German Record Critic’s Association (Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik), Hamelin is an Officer of the Order of Canada, a Chevalier de l’Ordre du Québec, and a member of the Royal Society of Canada. Hamelin’s principal teachers included his father, Gilles Hamelin, Yvonne Hubert, Harvey Wedeen and Russell Sherman. A native of Montreal, Marc-André Hamelin makes his home in Boston with radio producer and host Cathy Fuller.