Kirill Gerstein (russian: Кирилл Герштейн) (born 23 October 1979) is a Russian-American concert pianist. He is the sixth recipient of the
Gilmore 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 the
Hanns Eisler Hochschule in Berlin in addition to the
Kronberg Academy
The Kronberg Academy is an academy of chamber music based in Kronberg, Hesse, Germany. It was founded in 1993 by Raimund Trenkler, who has served since then as its chairman and artistic director. The academy's initial focus was on the cello and ...
’s
Sir András Schiff Performance Programme for Young Artists.
Early life and education
Gerstein was born in
Voronezh
Voronezh ( rus, links=no, Воро́неж, p=vɐˈronʲɪʂ}) is a city and the administrative centre of Voronezh Oblast in southwestern Russia straddling the Voronezh River, located from where it flows into the Don River. The city sits on ...
in the former
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
to a
Russian 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 in
Gorzów, 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 vibraphonist
Gary Burton
Gary Burton (born January 23, 1943) is an American jazz vibraphonist, composer, and educator. Burton developed a pianistic style of four-mallet technique as an alternative to the prevailing two-mallet technique. This approach caused him to be he ...
at a festival in St. Petersburg which led to a full-scholarship offer to study jazz piano at Boston's
Berklee College of Music. Gerstein was the youngest student ''ever'' admitted to the school.
Following his time at Berklee, Gerstein attended New York's
Manhattan 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 with
Dmitri Bashkirov
Dmitri Aleksandrovich Bashkirov (russian: Дми́трий Алекса́ндрович Башки́ров; November 1, 1931 – March 7, 2021) was a Russian pianist and academic teacher. Trained in his hometown Tbilisi and Moscow, he began an in ...
at
Queen Sofía College of Music and in Budapest with
Ferenc Rados
Ferenc Rados (born 26 October 1934, in Budapest) is a Hungarian pianist and professor of piano and chamber music. Until 1996, he taught at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Hungary. After retiring, he gave master classes in Europe an ...
.
Career
Kirill Gerstein made his major orchestral debut in September 2000 performing
Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 1 with
David Zinman
David Zinman (born July 9, 1936, in Brooklyn, NY) is an American conductor and violinist.
Education
After violin studies at Oberlin Conservatory, Zinman studied theory and composition at the University of Minnesota, earning his M.A. in 1963. H ...
and the
Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich
The Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich is a Swiss symphony orchestra based in Zürich. Its principal residence is the Tonhalle concert hall.
Early history prior to the orchestra
Precursor music ensembles in Zürich have included the music societies ...
and has since built a career as a major international concert artist.
As a soloist, Gerstein has performed with the
National Symphony Orchestra, the
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
and
New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic, officially the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc., globally known as New York Philharmonic Orchestra (NYPO) or New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, is a symphony orchestra based in New York City. It is ...
s, the
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
and
Minnesota Orchestras, and the
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
,
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
,
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
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, coordinates =
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, subdivision_name ...
,
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
,
Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
,
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
,
Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...
,
Indianapolis,
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...
,
St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
,
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
, and
Toronto Symphonies, among other North American orchestras. Abroad, he has performed with such orchestras as the
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
,
Czech
Czech may refer to:
* Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe
** Czech language
** Czechs, the people of the area
** Czech culture
** Czech cuisine
* One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus'
Places
* Czech, ...
,
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
,
Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"Ne ...
, and
London Philharmonics, the
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) is a British orchestra based in Birmingham, England. It is the resident orchestra at Symphony Hall: a B:Music Venue in Birmingham, which has been its principal performance venue since 1991. Its a ...
,
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra
The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra (Gewandhausorchester; also previously known in German as the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig) is a German symphony orchestra based in Leipzig, Germany. The orchestra is named after the concert hall in which it is bas ...
,
Staatskapelle Dresden,
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra,
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra ( nl, Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest, ) is a Dutch symphony orchestra, based at the Amsterdam Royal Concertgebouw (concert hall). Considered one of the world's leading orchestras, Queen Beatrix conferred the " ...
,
Tonkünstler Orchestra
The Tonkunstler Orchestra (German: ''Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich'', ) is an Austrian orchestra based in Vienna and Sankt Pölten, Lower Austria.
Origin of the name
The orchestra's name has its origins in the ''Tonkünstler-Soziet ...
in Vienna,
WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne
The WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne (German: WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln) is a German radio orchestra based in Cologne, where the orchestra mainly performs at two concert halls: the WDR Funkhaus Wallrafplatz and the Kölner Philharmonie.
Histo ...
, and the Zürich Tonhalle, as well as with the
NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo
and the
Taipei Symphony Orchestra.
Gerstein's festival appearances include engagements with the
Aspen Music Festival,
Blossom Festival with the Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago's
Grant Park Music Festival,
Ravinia Festival
Ravinia Festival is an outdoor music venue in Highland Park, Illinois. It hosts a series of outdoor concerts and performances every summer from June to September. The first orchestra to perform at Ravinia Festival was the New York Philharmonic unde ...
with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra,
Tanglewood
Tanglewood is a music venue in the towns of Lenox and Stockbridge in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. It has been the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1937. Tanglewood is also home to three music schools: the ...
with the Boston Symphony,
Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival
The Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival is a six-week-long summer Festival of chamber music held annually in July and August and located in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was founded in 1972 and presented its first series of concerts in 1973. Well-known mu ...
, and—with the Philadelphia Orchestra—
Bravo! Vail,
Mann Music Center, and Saratoga Chamber Music Festival. He debuted at the
Salzburg Festival
The Salzburg Festival (german: Salzburger Festspiele) is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer (for five weeks starting in late July) in the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Ama ...
playing solo repertoire and piano-duo works with
András Schiff. He has also performed at the
Lucerne Festival
Lucerne Festival is one of the leading international festivals in the world of classical music and presents a series of classical music festivals based in Lucerne, Switzerland. Founded in 1938 by Ernest Ansermet and Walter Schulthess, it curren ...
, Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival, and the
BBC Proms
The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hal ...
.
Early honors and awards include First Prize at the 2001
Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition
The Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition is an international piano competition specializing in the music championed by Arthur Rubinstein. The competition has been held every three years in Tel Aviv, Israel since 1974. History
T ...
and the 2002
Gilmore Young Artist Award.
In January 2010, Gerstein was announced as the sixth recipient of the
Gilmore Artist Award, which recognizes "extraordinary piano artistry" once every four years with a $300,000 prize. Previous winners include
Leif Ove Andsnes
Leif Ove Andsnes (; born 7 April 1970) is a Norwegian pianist and chamber musician. Andsnes has made several recordings for Virgin and EMI. In 2012, Leif Ove Andsnes has signed to Sony Classical, and recorded for the label the "Beethoven Journe ...
from Norway,
Piotr Anderszewski
Piotr Anderszewski () (born 1969) is a Polish pianist and composer.
Biographical background
Anderszewski was born in Warsaw, Poland. His father's family was part of Poland's aristocracy while his mother came from a Jewish Hungarian family. He s ...
from Poland, and
Ingrid Fliter from Argentina. With the prize money, Gerstein has been able to commission new works from
Timo Andres,
Chick Corea,
Alexander Goehr,
Oliver Knussen
Stuart Oliver Knussen (12 June 1952 – 8 July 2018) was a British composer and conductor.
Early life
Oliver Knussen was born in Glasgow, Scotland. His father, Stuart Knussen, was principal double bass of the London Symphony Orchestra, and a ...
,
Thomas Adès
Thomas Joseph Edmund Adès (born 1 March 1971) is a British composer, pianist and conductor. Five compositions by Adès received votes in the 2017 Classic Voice poll of the greatest works of art music since 2000: '' The Tempest'' (2004), '' ...
and
Brad Mehldau
Bradford Alexander Mehldau (; born August 23, 1970) is an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger.
Mehldau studied music at The New School, and toured and recorded while still a student. He was a member of saxophonist Joshua Redman's Qua ...
, with additional commissions scheduled for future performance.
In April 2010, Gerstein was awarded
Lincoln Center
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 milli ...
's
Avery Fisher Career Grant.
In 2015, Gerstein's recording of
Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 and
Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2, with the
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
The Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (DSO) is a German broadcast orchestra based in Berlin. The orchestra performs its concerts principally in the Philharmonie Berlin. The orchestra is administratively based at the ''Rundfunk Berlin-Branden ...
led by
James Gaffigan, was honored with an
ECHO Klassik Award as the "Concerto Recording of the Year."
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 the
Tchaikovsky 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.
On March 15th 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.
Awards
* 2001:
Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition
The Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition is an international piano competition specializing in the music championed by Arthur Rubinstein. The competition has been held every three years in Tel Aviv, Israel since 1974. History
T ...
, First Prize
* 2002:
Gilmore Young Artist Award
* 2010:
Gilmore Artist Award
* 2010:
Avery Fisher Career Grant
Discography
Kirill Gerstein records for the Cologne-based independent record label myrios classics but has also appeared on recordings released by
Deutsche Grammophon
Deutsche Grammophon (; DGG) is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family of ...
,
Decca Classics
Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American Decca's president. In ...
and LAWO Classics.
References
External links
Official websiteArtist page at myrios classicsArtist page at Enticott Music Management
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gerstein, Kirill
1979 births
Living people
American classical pianists
American male classical pianists
Russian classical pianists
Russian emigrants to the United States
Maria Canals International Music Competition prize-winners
Manhattan School of Music alumni
Prize-winners of the Pilar Bayona Piano Competition
Reina Sofía School of Music alumni
People from Voronezh
Russian Jews
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
Jewish classical pianists
21st-century classical pianists
21st-century American male musicians
21st-century American pianists
Gilmore Young Artist Award winners