This June, Alexander Kobrin, 25, was awarded the prestigious Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Gold Medal at the Twelfth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Immediately following this announcement, Kobrin began his first tour to the United States including performances at Bass Hall with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Maestro James Conlon and for the Washington Performing Arts Society. This summer, Kobrin gave recitals at the renowned Klavier-Festival Ruhr and makes his return visit to the States for a following fifty date tour.
This season Kobrin makes his debut with the New York Philharmonic in June and has also been invited to open both Dallas Symphony Orchestra/Claus Peter Flor and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/Vasily Petrenko’s opening concerts for the 06/07 season.
Born in Moscow in 1980, Alexander Kobrin began piano studies with Professor Tatiana Zelikman at the Gnessin Special Music School when he five. His debut took place at the age of eight, when he performed Bach's Concerto in F minor and, a year later, Beethoven's First Piano Concerto. In 2003 he graduated from the Moscow Consevatoire where he studied under the late Professor L. Naumov. Whilst at the conservatoire he received a scholarship and became a "New Names" laureate of the Russian Fund for Culture.
In 1993, he won the First Prize - the "Premio Mozart 93" - of the International Competition for Young Performers organized by Italian Television (RAI) in Paris. His first solo recital took place in the Moscow Conservatory's Rachmaninov Hall the same year. In 1999 he was the winner of the Busoni International Piano Competition in Bolzano, Italy and was awarded the special prize in memory of A. Benedetti Michelangeli. Shortly following, Kobrin was second-prize winner of the 2003 Hamamtsu Competition (with no first prize awarded) which led to tours extensively throughout Europe, Asia and South America.

Alexander Kobrin has collaborated with leading conductors such as Alexander Lazarev, Vasily Petrenko and James Conlon and has worked as a concerto soloist with orchestras including the Orchestra Verdi di Milano, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Moscow Virtuosi, Moscow State Symphony Orchestra and the Virtuosi of Salzburg Chamber Orchestra. Kobrin’s recent re-invitations include Festival Radio France et Montpellier 2006, Schloss Elmau and a tour of the United Kingdom with the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Paval Kogan. His other forthcoming appearances worldwide include the English Chamber Orchestra, the Osaka and Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Rio Philharmonic Orchestra, Chopin Festival in Duszniki, Clandeboye Festival, Braunschweig Festival, Hannover Prize winners Series, Turner Sims, Lille Piano Festival and Milano Societa dei Concerti.
In addition to the Cliburn Competition disc for Harmonia Mundi which will be release in October 2005, Kobrin has recorded Liszt and Chopin for international labels. He will also appear in In the Heart of Music, the film documentary about the 2005 Cliburn Competition which will be aired on PBS stations across the United States beginning October 2005.