Concert hall in Irkutsk named after Matsuev, which serves as headquarters of the "Stars on Baikal" festivalJazz evening during the "Crescendo" festival, 2018Matsuev being awarded theOrder of Honour by PresidentVladimir Putin in 2018
Denis Leonidovich Matsuev (/ma'tsujef/;‹ThetemplateLang-rus is beingconsidered for deletion.› Russian:Дени́с Леони́дович Мацу́ев; born June 11, 1975) is a Russian pianist. Primarily a classical pianist, he also performsjazz occasionally.
Born inIrkutsk,Soviet Union, Matsuev is the only child of two musicians, his mother being a piano teacher and his father a pianist and composer. He demonstrated a musical ear at age 3, when he reproduced on the piano at home a melody that he heard on television.[1] His father subsequently became his first piano teacher. Until age 15, Matsuev studied music in Irkutsk. In 1990, he won a prize at the "New Names Charitable Foundation" competition in Irkutsk and received a stipend, $1,000 a month, from the foundation to study music inMoscow.[1] With other young gifted musicians from Russia discovered by the foundation, Matsuev went on tour in Europe and the United States.[2]
In 1991, Matsuev moved with his parents to Moscow to continue his musical education. He studied at the Central Music School at theMoscow Conservatory. In 1994, he took part at his first international piano competition inJohannesburg, South Africa, where he was awarded the Grand Prix. In the same year, he entered the Moscow Conservatory as a student ofAleksey Nasedkin. After 1997, he studied underSergei Dorensky. Matsuev won the11th International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1998 at age 23.[3][4][5]
Matsuev is artistic co-director of the international "Annecy Classic Festival" inAnnecy, France, with Pascal Escande. He is also the organizer and artistic director of two international festivals in Russia: "Stars on Baikal" in his native city of Irkutsk and the annual music festival "Crescendo".[1]
In 2012 Matsuev[6] became artistic director of the 1st International "Astana Piano Passion" Festival and Competition, and in 2013 he was artistic director of the International Festival and Competition "Sberbank DEBUT" inKyiv.
Matsuev and 80 other Russian artists signed a collective letter "to support the position of PresidentVladimir Putin onUkraine andCrimea."[7][8]
Denis Matsuev at the concert in Basel, Switzerland
In 2018 Matsuev was awarded the RussianOrder of Honour. In 2022, due to his public support of Vladimir Putin, Matsuev's appearance with the Vienna Philharmonic in New York on February 25, 2022, was cancelled and he was replaced by pianist Seong-Jin Cho.[11][12]
Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 1(1917 Edition), Stravinsky Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra (1929), Shchedrin Piano Concerto No. 2 (1936) Denis Matsuev, Piano The Mariinsky Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev. Mariinsky Label 2015.
Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 2, Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2. CD, Mariinsky Label January 2018
