News
Biography 714 words
Download biography as pdf Download biography as word doc
Russian pianist Kirill Gerstein has quickly proven to be one of today's most intriguing young musicians. His masterful technique, musical curiosity and probing interpretations have led to explorations of classical music and jazz, advanced degrees by the age of 20, a professorship in piano by the age of 27 and a full performance schedule at the world's major music centres and festivals.
In January 2010 Kirill Gerstein was named the recipient of the 2010 Gilmore Artist Award, becoming only the sixth pianist to have been so honoured. The Gilmore Award is made to an exceptional pianist who, regardless of age or nationality, possesses profound musicianship, charisma and the desire to sustain a career as a major international concert artist. He was also honoured by being awarded a 2010 Avery Fisher Career Grant in April 2010.
Highlights of the 11/12 season include performances at the BBC Proms with the BBC SO and Semyon Bychkov, and elsewhere in Europe with MDR Leipzig, the WDR Cologne, Stavanger Symphony, Concerto Budapest, Dresden Philharmonic, SWR Freiburg, Lyon, RAI Turin and Munich Philharmonic. A European duo recital tour with Tabea Zimmermann is also planned (Frankfurt, Bonn, Madrid) as well as an extensive solo recital tour, making appearances in Milan, Vienna, London'
read more...
Russian pianist Kirill Gerstein has quickly proven to be one of today's most intriguing young musicians. His masterful technique, musical curiosity and probing interpretations have led to explorations of classical music and jazz, advanced degrees by the age of 20, a professorship in piano by the age of 27 and a full performance schedule at the world's major music centres and festivals.
In January 2010 Kirill Gerstein was named the recipient of the 2010 Gilmore Artist Award, becoming only the sixth pianist to have been so honoured. The Gilmore Award is made to an exceptional pianist who, regardless of age or nationality, possesses profound musicianship, charisma and the desire to sustain a career as a major international concert artist. He was also honoured by being awarded a 2010 Avery Fisher Career Grant in April 2010.
Highlights of the 11/12 season include performances at the BBC Proms with the BBC SO and Semyon Bychkov, and elsewhere in Europe with MDR Leipzig, the WDR Cologne, Stavanger Symphony, Concerto Budapest, Dresden Philharmonic, SWR Freiburg, Lyon, RAI Turin and Munich Philharmonic. A European duo recital tour with Tabea Zimmermann is also planned (Frankfurt, Bonn, Madrid) as well as an extensive solo recital tour, making appearances in Milan, Vienna, London's Wigmore Hall, Portland Oregon and Miami among others. In North America he returns to the NACO Ottawa, Detroit Symphony, St Paul Chamber, San Francisco, Seattle, Utah, Atlanta and Houston Symphony Orchestras.
Kirill Gerstein's recent engagements in North America have included his hugely successful debut with the New York Philharmonic which was described by Antony Tommasini in the New York Times as "a brilliant, perceptive and stunningly fresh account of Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto" and with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood. He has worked with the Cleveland, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago, Dallas, St. Louis, Columbus, Indianapolis and Vancouver Symphony orchestras among others. Festival appearances have included Chicago's Grant Park, the Mann Music Centre, Saratoga with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Aspen and Blossom with the Cleveland Orchestra. In recital he has played in Boston, New York's Town Hall and 92nd Street, Cincinnati, Detroit, Portland Maine, Vancouver and Washington's Kennedy Centre.
In Europe Kirill Gerstein has worked with such prominent orchestras as the Munich, Rotterdam and Royal Philharmonics, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia, Bournemouth Symphony, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskappelle, Zurich Tonhalle, the Finnish and Swedish Radio Orchestras, WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne and the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin. Further afield he has worked in Australia (where he will return in 2013), in Tokyo with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, and in Caracas with the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra and Gustavo Dudamel.
He has also performed recitals in Paris, Prague, Hamburg, London's Wigmore and Queen Elizabeth Halls 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.
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 went to the USA at 14 to continue his studies in jazz piano as the youngest student ever to attend Boston's Berklee College of Music, where he also continued working on the classical piano repertoire. Following his second summer at the Boston University program at Tanglewood, he decided to focus mainly on classical music and moved to New York City to attend the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Solomon Mikowsky and earned both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees. He continued his studies with Dmitri Bashkirov in Madrid and Ferenc Rados in Budapest.
Kirill Gerstein was awarded First Prize at the 2001 Arthur Rubinstein Piano Competition in Tel Aviv, received a 2002 Gilmore Young Artist Award and was chosen as Carnegie Hall's "Rising Star" for the 2005/06 season. He became an American citizen in 2003 and is currently a professor of piano at the Musikhochschule in Stuttgart.
His recital disc for the Myrios label that included works by Schumann, Liszt and Oliver Knussen was heralded by the New York Times as "one of the best recordings of 2010"; a duo recital disk with Tabea Zimmermann was also released last year.
Photos
Reviews
"Kirill Gerstein delivered the daunting piano part with silky grace"
Michael Church, The Independent
"Mr. Gerstein’s performance of Liszt and Schumann harked back to a what one imagined was the great European playing of a century ago. Not the exaggerated rubati and eccentric clanking of pure virtuosity. But playing in the grand style, with an all-embracing understanding of his music. "
Harry Rolnick, Concertonet.com
"Like other great artists—Martha Argerich and Steve Lacy come to mind right away—Gerstein approaches every note with a sense of how important that note is in relation to every one that has come before and every one that is to come after. This is not just a matter of microseconds around the note or of tiny shifts in volume to emphasize or deemphasize; it’s a matter of bringing individual moments together into a unified experience, of making sure that the thought-line of the music is continuous and coherent while giving each phrase the loving care it deserves. "
Steve Elman, The Arts Fuse
"Gerstein’s polished performance flowed from one piece into the next, creating the colorful jumble of a carnival crowd. Channeling the Romantic spirit, Gerstein played with engaging, fiery passion. "
Dorothy Hindman, South Florida Classical Review
"Though the enjoyably busy score [Rachmaninov 1] can seem a shade diffuse, especially in the first movement, Gerstein's sense of composure amid the dynamism, matched by the assured conducting of Hans Graf, made for a generally cohesive rendition. Gerstein's sensitive phrasing and deft touch made the Largo second movement the standout… Graf's brisk tempo and Gerstein's unfaltering agility made for a properly brisk, tight finale. [Rachmaninov 4] Gerstein dispatched the tricky effects nimbly, catching the opening movement's restless energy. The Allegro vivace finale was all zip and sparkle, again showcasing Gerstein's alacrity, agility and dynamism… "
Everett Evans, Chron.com
"So captivating was his musicality, I found myself in a visual daze, regaining consciousness to chuckle while stupefied at the brilliant physical choreography of Gerstein's flowy hands. His fingers gyrated with strong elegance up and down the ivories, one hand on top of the other, intersecting and frolicking as if an elaborate ballet had been crafted just for him. Was there a third hand? It seemed so at times, an optical illusion forged from brisk, stylish gesticulations. "
Joel Luks, Culture Map Houston
"… Gerstein consistently met the work's challenges and complexities: the dense chords, intricate figuration and those incessantly rolling, perpetual-motion runs. His total mastery of the first movement's epic cadenza was in itself a feat of breathless brilliance. Beyond the sheer stamina and keyboard acrobatics the work demands, Gerstein's playing was distinguished by his mastery of the music's ever shifting moods. He unleashed the fire of feverishly impassioned moments, then bought subtle artistry to more delicate effects, as when a lyrical passage trailed to a whisper in the keyboard's upper reaches and vanished in a feathery trill. "
Everett Evans, Houston Cronicle
"The piano solo was taken by Kirill Gerstein, who managed his virtuoso passages with the same ease that, on previous occasions, he has executed the demands of Sergei Rachmaninoff; and, for all of his attention to managing that flood of notes, he was always attentive in his response to the ensemble, particularly when this involved gestural interplay of motivic figures."
Stephen Smoliar, SF Classical Music Examiner
"[Burleske's] quirky, idiosyncratic humour with refined lyricism found a notable exponent in soloist Kirill Gerstein, who attacked its virtuoso demands with a combination of brilliance and sensitivity."
George Hall, The Guardian
"[Kirill Gerstein], ably abetted by Semyon Bychkov and the BBC Symphony Orchestra at their most elegant, found an insouciant, airy grace… There was a pussyfooting delicacy to the very opening, timpani prefiguring Salome’s ‘Dance of the Seven Veils’, and also to the work’s throwaway ending, yet the more virtuoso passages were despatched with invigorating panache. Gerstein is a born chamber musician, which showed in his delighted exchanges with wind soloists."
Douglas Cooksey, ClassicalSource.com
"[Gerstein] opened with Brahms’s Variations on a Theme of Paganini, a sprawling, rarely-heard exercise in a most un-Brahmsian kind of virtuosity. This seemed a peculiar choice as a curtain-raiser, but Gerstein made it work, excelling in its lyrical sections (including a waltz variation that felt like a refugee from the Liebeslieder), and controlling the score’s constituent voices extraordinarily well. I sometimes felt as if I were hearing an ensemble of players, each one speaking in a full objective tone."
Robert Everett-Green, The Globe and Mail
"Gerstein met and surpassed the technical challenges [of the programme] by putting his own, very individual stamp on each piece. There was consistency in the artist’s highly articulated playing, preternaturally delicate quiet passages and penchant for bringing out inner voices and repeated rhythms … this translated into an evening of musical intoxication. "
John Terauds, TheStar.com
"The Russian-born pianist Kirill Gerstein, in his Philharmonic debut, played a brilliant, perceptive and stunningly fresh account of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto. At 31 Mr. Gerstein is emerging as one of the most respected pianists of his generation. "
Antony Tommasini, The New York Times
"Muscles of steel and a phenomenal technique, ace articulator Gerstein had the requisite power to coax every last decibel from the Steinway, yet was possessed of finesse in spades for the lovely central Andantino. The finale’s Ukrainian based folksong welcomed spring with volant vitality and culminated with another Russian melody in blistering bravura."
Mike Marsh, The Bournemouth Echo
"Gerstein throughout played confidently, brilliantly negotiating endless octave runs, chromatic passages and scales of thirds."
C. J Gianakaris, Mlive.com
