Russian pianist Kirill Gerstein is quickly proving to be one of today's most promising and intriguing young artists. Already recognized for his deeply musical interpretations and masterful technique, he was the First Prize winner at the 2001 Arthur Rubinstein Piano Competition in Tel Aviv, was chosen to receive a 2002 Gilmore Young Artist Award, and, most recently, has been selected as Carnegie Hall’s “Rising Star” for the season 2005/06.
Kirill Gerstein was born in 1979 in Voronezh, Russia where he attended one of the country's special music schools for gifted children. He won his first competition - the International Bach Competition in Gorzów, Poland - at the age of 11 and over the next several years, attended jazz workshops after having taught himself to play jazz by listening to his parents' extensive record collection. It was while participating at a jazz festival in Poland that a faculty member of the Berklee College of Music in Boston noticed his precocious affinity for playing jazz piano. In 1993, following a subsequent meeting in St. Petersburg with the Vibraphonist Gary Burton, the Executive Vice President of Berklee, Mr. Gerstein attended the college's summer program and the following fall was invited to attend the college on a full scholarship. He accepted the offer and in May 1994 moved to Boston with his mother (his father was eventually allowed to join them) and at the age of 14 became the youngest college student in the school's history.
During his years at Berklee, he continued to practice the classical piano repertoire and also attended the Boston University summer program at Tanglewood in 1995 and 1996. It was following his second summer at Tanglewood that he decided that classical music would be his main focus. He moved to New York City to attend the Manhattan School of Music where he studied with Solomon Mikowsky and earned both his Bachelor and Masters of Music degrees by the age of 20. Mr.Gerstein continued his studies in Madrid with the famed piano pedagogue Dmitri Bashkirov, with whom he still coaches on a regular basis. He is also one of only six pianists to have been selected to study in 2003 and 2004 at the prestigious Lake Como Piano Academy in Italy.
Kirill Gerstein made his major orchestral debut in September 2000 with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra and David Zinman and was immediately re-engaged for the following season. Additional European orchestral appearances include performances with the National Orchestra of Spain with Gunther Herbig, Bamberg Symphony with Jonathan Nott, Israel Philharmonic, Orchestre de Lille with Sergiu Commissiona, Stuttgart Radio Orchestra, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and the Jerusalem Symphony with Lawrence Foster. He has appeared in recital in Paris, Hamburg, Bonn, Zurich, Prague, Warsaw and throughout Spain, while his summer festival appearances include three consecutive summers at the Verbier Festival, Ruhr Piano Festival, Gstaad, the International Piano Festival in the Canary Islands, the Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival with Elena Bashkirova and the London Proms with cellist Steven Isserlis.
In the United States, Mr. Gerstein made his Ravinia Festival concerto debut with the Chicago Symphony and Christoph Eschenbach in 2002 and also appeared in recital at the 2002 Gilmore Piano Festival, on Ravinia's Rising Star Series and in Boston on the Boston Conservatory's Piano Masters Series. During the 2003/04 season, he returned to Boston for a second recital on the Piano Masters Series, a recital at Washington’s renowned Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and appeared at the 2004 Gilmore Piano Festival.
Highlights of Mr. Gerstein's upcoming engagements include a chamber music project with Joshua Bell and Steven Isserlis in Carnegie's new Zankel Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall in London; a tour of Germany with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra led by Charles Dutoit; and recitals in the Symphony Hall Birmingham, Kölner Philharmonie, Megaron Athens, Wiener Konzerthaus, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Carnegie Hall, Konserthuset Stockholm, Cité de la musique and Luzern Festival Hall. His debut recital recording of works by Bach, Beethoven, Scriabin and George Gershwin arranged by Earl Wild was recently released on the Oehms Classics label.
His debut recital recording of works by Bach, Beethoven, Scriabin and George Gershwin arranged by Earl Wild was recently released on the Oehms Classics label.
