Kirill Gerstein - New Artist to Watch!

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Since winning First Prize at the 2001 Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition and receiving the Gilmore Young Artist Award in 2002, Russian pianist Kirill Gerstein has been travelling to the major international music centers with a suitcase full of concertos and rave reviews for his blazing technique and probing interpretations.

Last month Gerstein made his Los Angeles Philharmonic debut with conductor Hans Graf in Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 2. Then he was off to Germany to play Liszt's first concerto with Leonard Slatkin and the Royal Philharmonic and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with the SWR Symphony Orchestra, followed by a pair of chamber music concerts in Vienna and Salzburg. Earlier this month, Gerstein performed Ravel's Concerto in G major with Pinchas Zukerman and the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, and he gave a BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert at London's Wigmore Hall with cellist Stephen Isserlis. He ends the month in Tel Aviv playing Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Israel Chamber Orchestra.

"Kirill Gerstein may not be a household name (although he has now played with many of the world's leading orchestras) but on the evidence of this demanding recital he certainly deserves to be. He is the antithesis of the young klaviertiger and - although prodigiously technically endowed - is a player of patrician finesse and the most fastidious intelligence." - Douglas Cooksey - regarding the Russian pianist's March recital at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall.

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