Ronald Brautigam is a Dutch pianist, born in Amsterdam on 1 October 1954. He studied at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam with piano teacher Jan Wijn, then continued his studies in London with John Bingham and in the United States with Rudolf Serkin.
In 1984, Brautigam received the Dutch Music Prize, the Netherlands' highest distinction in classical music. He performs regularly in the Netherlands and abroad with leading orchestras, and has worked with conductors Frans Brüggen, Riccardo Chailly, Charles Dutoit, Ed Spanjaard, Bernard Haitink, Philippe Herreweghe, Ton Koopman, Roger Norrington, Simon Rattle, Edo de Waart and Andrew Parrott.
For many years he performed in the Arcturus Trio with clarinetist Arjan Ariëns Kappers and coloratura soprano Dieuwke Aalbers. Alongside the modern piano, he specializes in Classical-period repertoire and has worked with Ton Koopman, Frans Brüggen and Melvyn Tan on Classical piano music performed on the fortepiano.
Brautigam has performed and recorded Mozart's complete piano sonatas on fortepiano, as well as the complete piano sonatas of Beethoven and Haydn. His recordings include works by Mendelssohn, Haydn, Mozart, Ravel, Schumann and Rachmaninoff. In 2005 he began recording Beethoven's complete sonatas and variations; he also recorded Beethoven's piano concertos with the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra under Andrew Parrott in 2008, and on fortepiano with Die Kölner Akademie under Michael Alexander Willens in 2019.
He reconstructed Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 0, WoO 4, a work Beethoven wrote in 1784 at the age of thirteen. The reconstruction was published by Alba Music Press, and Brautigam received the Midem Classical Award in 2010 for his recording of the work. He is also a regular musical partner of violinist Isabelle van Keulen. In 2024, he received the Edison Classical Lifetime Achievement Award.