Biography
Kirill Gerstein
The multifaceted pianist Kirill Gerstein has rapidly ascended into classical music's highest ranks. Reaching beyond the classical genre with his unique background in jazz, coupled with a masterful technique, musical curiosity and an energetic and expressive musical personality, Mr. Gerstein has proven to be one of today's most intriguing musicians.
In January 2010, Mr. Gerstein was named the recipient of the 2010 Gilmore Artist Award. Only the sixth pianist to have been so honored, the Gilmore Award is made to an exceptional pianist who, regardless of age or nationality, possesses broad and profound musicianship and charisma and who desires and can sustain a career as a major international concert artist. He has since shared his Gilmore prize by commissioning boundary crossing new works by Brad Mehldau and Chick Corea. Mr. Gerstein was also awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant in April 2010, and received a 2002 Gilmore Young Artist Award as well as first prize at the 2001 Arthur Rubinstein Piano Competition in Tel Aviv.
Highlights of Mr. Gerstein's 2012/13 season include subscription debuts with Philadelphia Orchestra and the Boston, Toronto and Montreal symphonies and with the Czech Philharmonic, NDR Hamburg, RSB Berlin and Tonnkunstler Symphony Vienna; re-engagements with the St. Louis and Indianapolis symphonies and in London with the Philharmonia Orchestra, at the Proms and in recital at Queen Elizabeth Hall; and a first appearance at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and a return to the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Mr. Gerstein's recent engagements in North America include performances with the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, Cleveland Orchestra, and the Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta, Detroit, Houston, Dallas, Baltimore, Seattle and Vancouver symphonies among others; festival appearances at Chicago's Grant Park, Aspen, the Mann Music Center and Saratoga with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Tanglewood with the Boston Symphony and Blossom with the Cleveland Orchestra; and recitals in Boston, New York's 92nd St. Y, Vancouver, Miami, Detroit, Cal Performances at UC Berkeley and Washington's Kennedy Center.
Internationally, Kirill Gerstein has worked with such prominent European orchestras as the Munich, Rotterdam and Royal Philharmonics, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Dresden Staatskappelle, Zurich Tonhalle, the Finnish and Swedish Radio Orchestras, WDR Cologne and the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, as well as with the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo and the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra in Caracas with Gustavo Dudamel. He has also performed recitals in Paris, Prague, Hamburg, London's Wigmore Hall and at the Liszt Academy in Budapest. He made his Salzburg Festival debut playing solo and two piano works with Andras Schiff and has also appeared at the Verbier, Lucerne and Jerusalem Chamber Music Festivals.
Named one of the ten best recordings of 2010 by the New York Times, Kirill Gerstein's first recording for Myrios Classics of recital works by Schumann, Liszt and Oliver Knussen was released in October 2010, following by a duo recital disc with Tabea Zimmermann.
Born in 1979 in Voronezh, Russia, Mr. Gerstein attended one of the country's special music schools for gifted children and taught himself to play jazz by listening to his parents' extensive record collection. He came to the US at 14 to study jazz piano as the youngest student ever to attend Boston's Berklee College of Music, but also continued his classical studies. At the age of 16 he decided to focus on classical music and moved to New York City to attend the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Solomon Mikowsky and earned Bachelors and Masters of Music degrees. He continued his studies with Dmitri Bashkirov in Madrid and Ferenc Rados in Budapest.
Kirill Gerstein became an American citizen in 2003 and is currently a professor of piano at the Musikhochschule in Stuttgart.
For further information please visit www.kirillgerstein.com