Zarina Shimanskaya was born in Leningrad. Graduated from the Rimsky-Korsakov St Petersburg State Conservatory (class of Nina Seryogina), also completing a postgraduate study at the conservatory (class of Sergei Uryvaev) and a master’s degree at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg (class of Yevgeny Korolyov). Has taken part in masterclasses given by Arie Vardi, Alexei Lubimov, Leonid Brumberg, Stephen Kovacevich, Alexander Toradze and Leonidas Kavakos.
Prize-winner at the Virtuosi of the 21st Century competition in Moscow (1999), the Giuseppe Terracciano International Piano Competition in Giffoni Sei Casali (Italy, 2009) and the IBLA Grand Prize competition in Ragusa (Italy, 2017).
Tours throughout Russia and to countries in Europe and Asia as a soloist, with ensembles and with symphony orchestras. As an interpreter of chamber music she regularly performs with Kristóf Baráti, István Várdai, Nadja Michael, Albina Shagimuratova, Vasily Stepanov, Dennis Gasanov, Pavel Romanenko and the Valentin Berlinsky Quartet among others. As a soloist she collaborated with the conductors Valery Gergiev, Teodor Currentzis, Yuri Bashmet, Christian Knapp, Alexander Rahbari, Valentin Uryupin, Ravil Martynov, Dmitry Sinkovsky, Mikhail Simonyan, Sergey Oselkov, Fedor Lednev, Ivan Rudin, Karen Durgaryan, Alexey Nyaga, Ivan Stolbov, Gurgen Petrosyan, Yury Demidovich and Yury Medyanik to name but a few. Has appeared at Wigmore Hall in London, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre, the Grand halls of the Moscow Conservatory and the St Petersburg Philharmonia, the Kolobov Novaya Opera Theatre of Moscow, Munich’s Gasteig and Berlin’s Radialsystem as well as at the International Diaghilev Festival in Perm (Russia), the Piano Festival at the Brucknerhaus in Linz (Austria), the Verbier Festival (Switzerland), the Stars of the White Nights festival and the Mariinsky International Piano Festival among many others.
Significant events in the 2023–24 season include performances of Kuzma Bodrov’s works with Yuri Bashmet and the Moscow Soloists Chamber Orchestra, the premiere performance of the first edition of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto with Dmitry Sinkovsky and the La Voce Strumentale Orchestra in Nizhny Novgorod, a recital at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre, a tour to China with Haoran Li and the Beijing Symphony Orchestra, the premiere performance of a work dedicated to Zarina Shimanskaya herself – Valery Voronov’s Piano Concerto – with Christian Knapp and the Mariinsky Orchestra.
Among highlights of the 2024–25 season are the opening of the concert season of the Rachmaninoff Academic Symphony Orchestra with maestro Alexey Morgunov (Tambov), a recital at Nizhny Novgorod’s Packhauses, a performance of Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto at the Alexander Spendiaryan Opera and Ballet National Academic Theatre (Yerevan), participation in the 1st Festival of New Music (Khabarovsk), vocal evenings with Albina Shagimuratova at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre and at Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, performances – together with Abisal Gergiev – of Bruch’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra (St Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod), a performance of chamber works – with the Valentin Berlinsky Quartet – at the Moscow Concert Hall Zaryadye.
Her repertoire includes works from various eras and styles, ranging from piano concerti by Mozart and Tchaikovsky to opuses by Penderecki, Schnittke, Frank Martin and Shchedrin.
Information for September 2025
| user_name | | Exit |
