Elena Bashkirova - piano For many years now Elena Bashkirova has been renowned as one of the best contemporary pianists. Born in Moscow, pianist Elena Bashkirova comes from a musical family. Her father is the celebrated pianist and teacher Dmitri Bashkirov, and she became a student in his master class at the Moscow Conservatory. Ms. Bashkirova is a regular guest with the world's leading orchestras, including the Munich Philharmonic, the Gürzenich Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the radio symphony orchestras of the NDR (Hamburg), the WDR (Cologne) and Berlin, the Hallé Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the Spanish National Orchestra Madrid, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra as well as the Chicago and the Houston symphony orchestras. Her collaborations with Sergiu Celibidache in Munich and Pierre Boulez in Chicago had a special influence on her artistic development. Other conductors with whom she has worked include Zubin Mehta, Christoph Eschenbach, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Semyon Bychkov, James Conlon, Lawrence Foster, Claus Peter Flor, David Robertson and Michael Gielen. Ms. Bashkirova's 2003-04 season included engagements with the Chigago and the Dallas symphony orchestras, the National Symphony Orchestra (Washington, D.C.), the Deutsches Symphonieorchester Berlin, the Gulbenkian Orchestra Lisbon as well as the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra Budapest. Chamber music has consistently been an important part of Elena Bashkirova musical life. Her partnership with Gidon Kremer has included duo-recitals at all of the major international festivals and a series of recordings. Together with members of the Berlin Philharmonic she founded the Metropolis Ensemble Berlin. She performs regularly with the Ensemble Wien-Berlin. As an accompanist she has worked with such famous singers as Siegfried Jerusalem, Julia Varady, Robert Holl and Andreas Schmidt. In 1998 Elena Bashkirova founded the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival. As its artistic director Ms Bashkirova, along with the festival ensemble, are touring in Europe and the United States with performances in Berlin, Paris, Vienna and New York, among other cities. They are also regular guests of such famous international summer festivals as Lucerne, Rheingau, Bad Kissingen and Stresa. Elena Bashkirova has recorded on video the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 17, K. 453, the Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 1 and the Brahms Piano Trios (with Maxim Vengerov and Boris Pergamenshikov).