Pavel Gililov was born in the Soviet Union and was discovered by Dimitry Kabalevsky, as a musical talent.
In 1972, whilst still a student, he won the Moscow National Piano Competition and was awarded a prize at the 1975 International Chopin Competition in Warsaw.
From 1982 until his retirement, in 2013, he was piano professor at the Hochschule fur Musik in Cologne and is Professor at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.
The pianist holds several master classes throughout Europe and the Far East and is Chairman of the Jury and Artistic Director at the International Telekom Beethoven Competition, Bonn. He is considered one of the most influential piano experts in the world and is responsible for many pianistic careers of the last decades.
Rudolf Buchbinder is one of the legendary artists of our time. His piano playing is an unparalleled fusion of the authority of a career spanning more than 60 years with spirit and spontaneity. His renditions are celebrated worldwide for their intellectual depth and musical freedom.
Particularly his renditions of Ludwig van Beethoven's works are considered to be exemplary. He has performed the 32 piano sonatas 60 times in cycles all over the world and developed the story of their interpretation over decades. He was the first pianist to play all Beethoven sonatas at the Salzburg Festival during a summer festival. A live recording is available on DVD.
On the occasion of Ludwig van Beethoven's 250th birthday in the 2019/20 concert season, for the first time in its 150-year history, the Vienna Musikverein gave a single pianist, Rudolf Buchbinder, the honor of performing all five piano concertos by Ludwig van Beethoven in a specially edited cycle. Buchbinder's partners in this unprecedented constellation were the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under Music Director Andris Nelsons, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Riccardo Muti and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden under their chief conductors Mariss Jansons, Valery Gergiev and Christian Thielemann.
Professor Hae-Young Kim is a graduate of Kyunggi Girl's High School (Korea), Seoul National University (Korea), Musik Hochschule fur Musik (Vienna, Austria), Musikwissenschaft and Musikalische Frueh-erziehung (Germany). She has performed in Korea, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Greece, Bulgaria, Spain, the US and Finland as a solo pianist, chamber music player and a soloist with national and international philharmonic orchestras. Every summer she presents lectures and master classes as well as serves on the jury of the piano competition in the Forum Barcelona Festival (Barcelona, Spain). Prof. Kim is a champion of contemporary music and has premiered numerous 20th century works including pieces of Jeno Takas, Jukka Linkola, and Edmon Tapio in Korea and other countries. Her most recent performances include "Apollo" by Jukka Linkolla at the Contemporary Music Festrival in Terrassa (Spain), Sonata for 2 pianos & percussion by Bartok, and a lecture recital of Piazzolla's "Le Grand Tango" for cello and piano.
Critically acclaimed as “one of the great Bach interpreters of his generation”, Stepan Simonian is driven by a yearning to explore and illuminate the multiple facets of the great works of piano repertoire, particularly by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Beethoven, Mozart, and Bach.
His Silver Medal at the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in 2010, his training within a well-cultured piano school tradition at Moscow Conservatory under Pavel Nersessian, as well as with Oleg Boshniakovich, then with Evgeni Koroliov in Hamburg, all form part of the experiences that have marked his musical taste, his interpretations, and his teaching.
Born in Moscow in 1981, Simonian won First Prize at the 2005 Virginia Waring International Piano Competition, and Third Prize at the 2008 Jose Iturbi International Piano Competition, both in the US.
In recognition of his achievements in chamber music, he was awarded the prestigious Berenberg Cultural Prize in 2009 in Hamburg, where he has made his home. In 2014 he won Third Prize at the Aram Khachaturian International Piano Competition in Yerevan, Armenia.
Russian pianist Dmitri Alexeev is one of the world's most highly regarded artists. His critically praised recitals on the world's leading concert stages and his concert appearances with the most prestigious orchestras have secured his position as one of "the most remarkable pianists of the day" (Daily Telegraph).
He has performed in the major concert halls around the world with most of great orchestras such as Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Concertgebouw, all London orchestras etc. under many celebrated conductors (Giulini, Ashkenazy, Boulez, Muti, Pappano, Temirkanov, Rozhdestvensky, Jansons,Gergiev,Tennstedt among others).
Dmitri Alexeev has made many fine recordings for EMI, BMG, Virgin Classics, Hyperion and Russian labels. Following his Virgin Classics recording of the complete Rachmaninov Preludes, which won the Edison Award in the Netherlands.
Recently his recordings of Scriabin’s complete Piano Sonatas and complete Etudes were released on Brilliant Classic. In 2017, Alexeev continued his Scriabin recording project with a disc of the complete Preludes which will be released in the nearest future. His recording of the complete Chopin Mazurkas was released in 2014.
Born in Chieti, he studied under the guidance of Lucia Passaglia at the Conservatory "L. Cherubini" in Florence graduating with highest honours. He participated as a student performer on a three-year piano perfection course at the “Accademia Musicale Umbra” where he achieved a "Diploma of Excellence”.
Later, he participated in the "International Master Classes" in Klaipeda (Lithuania), held by Lazar Berman. With him, his concert repertoire deepened and improved with particular attention to the music of F. Liszt, at the European Academy of Music, Erba (CO). He perfected Chamber Music at the International School of Chamber Music in Duino under the guidance of "Trio of Trieste" achieving a "Diploma with Merit". He has won national and international competitions, including "M. Clementi" in Florence, “Agorà 80" in Rome, "F. Liszt" in Lucca, and "Città di Stresa". In 1997 he won second prize at the 'T. I. M. " - International Music Tournament; in 1998, he was awarded the prestigious "Prix Venice"; in 1999 he won second prize at the international competition "Ecomusic" of Monopoli (BA); in 2002 was the winner of the 40th International Piano Competition "Arcangelo Speranza" in Taranto. In 2009 he was awarded in the “4th International Tbilisi Piano Competition" in Georgia (WFIMC).