Alexander Malofeev

Born in Moscow in 2001, Alexander Malofeev began taking piano lessons at the age of five and later studied at the Gnessin Institute and the Conservatory in his native city. At thirteen, he won First Prize and the Gold Medal in the Junior Division of the International Tchaikovsky Competition. The next year, Riccardo Chailly heard him perform during a guest appearance in Milan and was struck not only by the young Russian’s technical perfection but also by the depth of his interpretations, which elevated him far beyond the status of a mere “child prodigy.” Since then, Malofeev has been invited to perform with the Philadelphia and Boston Symphony Orchestras, the Orchestra dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2019, he toured Shanghai with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and Chailly; in 2024, he made his debut at Lucerne’s Summer Festival with this orchestra, performing Rachmaninoff’s First Piano Concerto. Chailly also engaged him for a European tour with the Filarmonica della Scala. Malofeev has collaborated with such conductors as Marin Alsop, Alain Altinoglu, Myung-Whun Chung, Susanna Mälkki, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Alondra de la Parra, Vasily Petrenko, Mikhail Pletnev, and Michael Tilson Thomas. He has performed at the Vienna Musikverein and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, in the Philharmonies of Paris and Luxembourg, at the Bunka Kaikan Theater in Tokyo, the Seoul Arts Center, and the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, as well as at the Parco della Musica in Rome and the Alte Oper Frankfurt. He has also been a guest artist at major festivals, including Verbier, La Roque d’Anthéron, the Rheingau Music Festival, and the Ruhr Piano Festival, as well as Aspen, Ravinia, and Tanglewood. Malofeev is particularly acclaimed for his interpretations of Rachmaninoff, but his repertoire spans from the Baroque era to Scriabin, Prokofiev, and Gershwin. He currently resides in Berlin.

Lucerne Festival debut on 20 August 2024, when he performed as the soloist in Rachmaninoff’s First Piano Concerto with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra under Riccardo Chailly.

February 2025