Yulianna Avdeeva recital (1^st prize)

Yulianna Avdeeva
Piano

• Prize-winner at the Bremen Piano Competition (2003)
• Prize-winner at the Concours de Genève (2006)
• Prize-winner at the XVI International Frédéric Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw (1^st prize and Krystian Zimerman Special Prize for the best performance of a Chopin sonata, 2010)
• Prize-winner at the Arthur Rubinstein in Memoriam Competition (1^st prize)
• Prize-winner at A. M. A. Calabria International Piano Competition (1^st prize)

“... The first prize deservedly went to the pianist who from the very first days of the competition proved herself to be a dazzling and mature performer who was able to depict all the facets of Chopin’s music and make use of all the possibilities of the concert piano. She was the only one who succeeded in conveying this incredible sensation of improvisation, spontaneity and impulsiveness that imbue all of Chopin’s works. Yulianna Avdeyeva is a true artist! Bravo!”
Elisabeth Schneiter. ResMusica.com

With her sensational victory at the XVI International Frédéric Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw (2010), Yulianna Avdeeva took her place on the international stage. Her forthcoming debuts with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Alan Gilbert in Warsaw and New York and with the NHK Symphony Orchestra under Charles Dutoit in Tokyo are highly anticipated. Her recital debut at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in the International Piano Series of London’s Southbank Centre have drawn equal interest.
Already prior to her stunning success in Warsaw (where in addition to the First Prize she also received the Krystian Zimerman Special Prize for the best performance of a Chopin sonata), Yulianna Avdeeva had emerged as a prize-winner at numerous international competitions, among them the Bremen Piano Competition (2003) and the Concours de Genève (2006). She distinguished herself as a pianist at an early age, receiving the First Prize at the International Carl Czerny Young Pianists’ Competition in Prague at the age of just twelve. Avdeeva’s other awards include First Prizes at the Arthur Rubinstein in Memoriam Competition and the A. M. A. Calabria International Piano Competition.

Yulianna Avdeeva was born in 1985 in Moscow. Her talent for music appeared in her early childhood. At the age of five she began her piano studies with Elena Ivanova at the Gnessins’ Special School of Music for highly gifted young musicians. In 2003 Avdeeva went to Switzerland to attend the Zurich University of the Arts and study with Konstantin Scherbakov for whom she also served as an assistant from 2006 to 2009. At the same time, she remained faithful to her hometown, where she worked with Vladimir Tropp at the Gnessins’ Academy of Music. In 2008 she graduated in both Zurich and Moscow with top grades and in the same year was accepted at the prestigious International Piano Academy Lake Como (Italy) where she continues to hone her talents under the guidance of such renowned pianists such as Dmitri Bashkirov, Boris Berman, William Grant Naboré and Fou Ts’ong.
The pianist’s repertoire spans a wide range of styles, from Bach to Beethoven, Schubert and Chopin and music of the 20^th century. In addition to her solo recitals, Avdeeva frequently performs together with chamber ensembles. She is especially interested in performing on early instruments. In 2007, whilst still a student, she made a studio recording of Beethoven’s challenging Twenty-Ninth Hammerklavier Sonata on an early fortepiano. She intends to explore this field in even greater detail.

The pianist has been touring internationally from an early age. She has appeared at London’s Barbican Hall, the Great Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatoire in Moscow, the Salle Cortot in Paris, the Bösendorfer-Saal in Vienna, Warsaw’s Filharmonia, Die Glocke in Bremen and the Tonhalle in Zurich. She has taken part in festivals including Chopin and His Europe in Warsaw, Musical Olympus in St Petersburg, the Festival de Menton and the  Arthur Rubinstein Festival in Łódź. The pianist’s future engagements will take her to recitals at Zurich’s Tonhalle, performances in Montpellier, Lyon and Spain, the  Prague Spring Festival, the  MDR Musiksommer at Wartburg Castle and festivals in Nohant and La Roque d’Anthéron. She also has plans to give concerts with the Radio Stuttgart Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (at the festival hopin and His Europe in Warsaw) and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Manfred Honeck in Helsinki.