Denis Matsuev

The Russian pianist Denis Matsuev was born in 1975 into a musical family in Irkutsk, Siberia. His father took charge of his initial training until, at the age of 15, Denis continued his piano studies in Moscow with Alexei Nasedkin and Sergei Dorensky. After winning the Tchaikovsky Competition in 1998, Matsuev received invitations to perform all over the world. Ever since, he has appeared as a guest artist at the Ravinia Festival, the Hollywood Bowl, the BBC Proms, the Edinburgh Festival, the Maggio Musicale in Florence, and La Roque d’Anthéron Piano Festival. He performs regularly with major orchestras and conductors: in the 2018-19 season, for example, he appeared with the New York and Munich Philharmonics and the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev, the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics under Mariss Jansons, the Israel Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta, the Dresden Staatskapelle and Christian Thielemann, the London Symphony Orchestra under Gianandrea Noseda, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin, the Filarmonica della Scala and Riccardo Chailly, the London Philharmonic and Yuri Temirkanov, the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal under Kent Nagano, and the Orchestra del Teatro San Carlo in Naples under Neeme Järvi. Matsuev is especially acclaimed for his Rachmaninoff performances. At the invitation of the Rachmaninoff Foundation, he has played works by the composer on Rachmaninoff’s own concert grand at the Villa Senar near Lucerne. He serves as Artistic Director of the Stars on Baikal and Astana Piano Passion. Since 2008, he is the Chairman of the New Names Foundation, which supports the emerging musical generation in Russia. Matsuev is a recipient of the Shostakovich Prize, the Russian State Prize for Literature and Arts, and the Order of Honor.  He is a “People’s Artist of Russia”, UNESCO Ambassador, and an Honorary Professor of the Moscow Conservatory.

LUCERNE FESTIVAL debut on 12 September 2013, performing Rachmaninoff’s
Third Piano Concerto with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic under Yuri Temirkanov.

August 2019