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Kirill Gerstein | |
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 2009 | |
| Born | (1979-10-23)23 October 1979 (age 45) |
| Education | Manhattan School of Music |
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| Organizations | Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" |
| Awards | |
Kirill Gerstein (Russian:Кирилл Герштейн) (born 23 October 1979) is a Russian-American concert pianist. He is the sixth recipient of theGilmore Artist Award. Born in the former Soviet Union, Gerstein is an American citizen based in Berlin. Between 2007-2017, he led piano classes at the Stuttgart Musik Hochschule. In 2018, he took up the post of Professor of Piano at theHanns Eisler Hochschule in Berlin in addition to theKronberg Academy’sSir András Schiff Performance Programme for Young Artists.
Gerstein was born inVoronezh in the formerSoviet Union to aRussian Jewish family and began playing the piano at the age of two. At the age of 12, he won his first competition - the International Bach Competition inGorzów, Poland. Though he formally studied classical piano, he also learned to play jazz by listening to his parents' record collection. At the age of 14, he met jazz vibraphonistGary Burton at a festival in St. Petersburg which led to a full-scholarship offer to study jazz piano at Boston'sBerklee College of Music. Gerstein was the youngest studentever admitted to the school.
Following his time at Berklee, Gerstein attended New York'sManhattan School of Music, where he studied with Solomon Mikowsky, earning both his Bachelor's and Master's of Music degrees in four years. He continued his studies in Madrid withDmitri Bashkirov atQueen Sofía College of Music and in Budapest withFerenc Rados.
Kirill Gerstein made his major orchestral debut in September 2000 performingBrahms's Piano Concerto No. 1 withDavid Zinman and theTonhalle-Orchester Zürich and has since built a career as a major international concert artist.[1]
As a soloist, Gerstein has performed with theNational Symphony Orchestra, theLos Angeles andNew York Philharmonics, thePhiladelphia andMinnesota Orchestras, and theAtlanta,Baltimore,Boston,Chicago,Cincinnati,Dallas,Detroit,Houston,Indianapolis,Montreal,St. Louis,San Francisco, andToronto Symphonies, among other North American orchestras. Abroad, he has performed with such orchestras as theBerlin,Czech,Munich,Rotterdam, London Symphony Orchestra andLondon Philharmonics, theCity of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra,Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra,Staatskapelle Dresden,Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra,Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra,Tonkünstler Orchestra in Vienna,WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, and the Zürich Tonhalle, as well as with theNHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo[2] and theTaipei Symphony Orchestra.
Gerstein's festival appearances include engagements with theAspen Music Festival,Blossom Festival with the Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago'sGrant Park Music Festival,Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra,Tanglewood with the Boston Symphony,Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and—with the Philadelphia Orchestra—Bravo! Vail,Mann Music Center, and Saratoga Chamber Music Festival. He debuted at theSalzburg Festival playing solo repertoire and piano-duo works withAndrás Schiff. He has also performed at theLucerne Festival, Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival, and theBBC Proms.[2]
Early honors and awards include First Prize at the 2001Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition and the 2002Gilmore Young Artist Award.[3][4]
In January 2010, Gerstein was announced as the sixth recipient of theGilmore Artist Award, which recognizes "extraordinary piano artistry" once every four years with a $300,000 prize. Previous winners includeLeif Ove Andsnes from Norway,Piotr Anderszewski from Poland, andIngrid Fliter from Argentina.[5] With the prize money, Gerstein has been able to commission new works fromTimo Andres,Chick Corea,Alexander Goehr,Oliver Knussen,Thomas Adès andBrad Mehldau, with additional commissions scheduled for future performance.[2]
In April 2010, Gerstein was awardedLincoln Center'sAvery Fisher Career Grant.[6][7]
In 2015, Gerstein's recording ofTchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 andProkofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2, with theDeutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin led byJames Gaffigan, was honored with anECHO Klassik Award as the "Concerto Recording of the Year."[8] This recording marked the world premiere of the Tchaikovsky concerto in its 1879 urtext edition, which reflects the way the composer himself conducted the concerto before a series of posthumous edits were made to the score. Based on Tchaikovsky's own conducting score from his last public concert, the new critical edition was published in 2015 by theTchaikovsky Museum in Klin, tying in with Tchaikovsky's 175th anniversary and marking 140 years since the concerto's world premiere in Boston, in 1875. For the recording, Kirill was granted special pre-publication access to the new edition.[9][10]On March 15, 2022, he was the soloist of Ravel’s concerto for the left hand in the concert given at the Berliner Philharmonie in support of the Ukrainian people, with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under Alan Gilbert.
Kirill Gerstein records for the Cologne-based independent record label myrios classics but has also appeared on recordings released byDeutsche Grammophon,Decca Classics and LAWO Classics.
| Year | Recordings[11] | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Kirill Gerstein & Thomas Adès ThreeMazurkas Berceuse from The Exterminating Angel (world premiere recording) Concert paraphrase onPowder her face for two pianos (world premiere recording) In Seven Days with theTanglewood Music Centre Orchestra andThomas Adès, conductor and piano | myrios classics |
| 2020 | Adès Conducts Adès Concerto for Piano and Orchestra Totentanz with theBoston Symphony Orchestra andThomas Adès, conductor;Mark Stone, baritone; Christianne Stotijn, mezzo-soprano | Deutsche Grammophon |
| 2020 | Strauss: Enoch Arden withBruno Ganz | myrios classics |
| 2019 | Brahms: Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34 with theHagen Quartett | myrios classics |
| 2019 | Tchaikovsky Project Boxset: Piano Concerto Nos. 1-3 with theCzech Philharmonic andSemyon Bychkov, conductor | Decca Classics |
| 2019 | Busoni: Piano Concerto with theBoston Symphony Orchestra, Men of theTanglewood Festival Chorus andSakari Oramo, conductor | myrios classics |
| 2018 | Scriabin: Symphony No. 1 andPrometheus: The Poem of Fire with theOslo Philharmonic andVasily Petrenko, conductor | LAWO Classics |
| 2018 | The Gershwin Moment Rhapsody in Blue Concerto in F Somebody Loves Me I Got Rhythm Blame it on my Youth Summertime Embraceable You with theSt Louis Symphony Orchestra andDavid Robertson, conductor;Gary Burton, vibraphone;Storm Large, vocals | myrios classics |
| 2017 | Scriabin: Symphony No. 2 and Piano Concerto, Op. 20 with theOslo Philharmonic andVasily Petrenko, conductor | LAWO Classics |
| 2016 | Liszt:Transcendental Études | myrios classics |
| 2015 | Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 (1879 version - world premiere recording) Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 2 with theDeutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin andJames Gaffigan, conductor | myrios classics |
| 2014 | Imaginary Pictures Mussorgsky:Pictures at an Exhibition Schumann:Carnaval | myrios classics |
| 2012 | Sonatas for Viola & Piano, Vol. 2 withTabea Zimmermann, viola Brahms: Sonata for Viola and Piano in F minor, Op. 120, No. 1 Schubert: Sonata for Arpeggione and Piano in A minor, D. 821 Franck: Sonata for Violin (Viola) and Piano in A | myrios classics |
| 2010 | Sonatas for Viola & Piano, Vol. 1 withTabea Zimmermann, viola Clarke: Sonata for Viola and Piano Vieuxtemps: Sonata for Viola and Piano in B-Flat, Op. 36 Brahms: Sonata for Viola and Piano in E-Flat, Op. 120, No. 2 | myrios classics |
| 2010 | Schumann: Humoresque Knussen:Ophelia's Last Dance Liszt: Sonata in B minor |
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