Pavel Kolesnikov
Piano
Winner of the Honens International Piano Competition in 2012, London-based pianist Pavel Kolesnikov was born in Siberia into a family of scientists. He studied both the piano and violin for 10 years, before concentrating solely on the piano, studying at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory with Sergei Dorensky, at London’s Royal College of Music with Norma Fisher where he received the Milstein Medal and was the Benjamin Britten Piano Fellow, and at Brussels’ Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel as Artist-In-Residence with Maria João Pires. He was a BBC New Generation Artist from 2014 to 2016, and Artist-In-Residence at Wigmore Hall during the 2020/2021 season.
Highlights in the 2024/2025 season include performances with the London Symphony Orchestra at Classical Pride, recitals at Southbank Centre, Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw Brugge, Spivey Hall and Severance Music Center as part of The Cleveland Orchestra’s Piano Series, returns to The Hallé, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Hong Kong Sinfonietta, as well as debuting with Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Other recent engagements include concertos with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at the BBC Proms – collaborating with conductors Vasily Petrenko, Manfred Honeck, Mark Elder, Susanna Mälkki, Alexandre Bloch, Alpesh Chauhan and Gemma New – as well as recital performances at Konzerthaus Berlin, Klavier-Festival Ruhr, Festival International de Piano de La Roque d’Anthéron and Piano aux Jacobins.
Kolesnikov’s seven-concert residency at the 2023 Aldeburgh Festival showcased the breadth of his artistic vision; in addition to recitals and concertos with the Britten Sinfonia and Sinfonia of London, he gave immersive performances with partner and pianist Samson Tsoy. The duo have since performed at Carnegie Hall, Barbican Centre and BOZAR in Brussels. Aldeburgh also saw the première of Celestial Navigation – a sequence of music featuring projections by architect Sophie Hicks and text by Martin Crimp, created in homage to Joseph Cornell. Another cross-genre collaboration was his realisation of Bach’s Goldberg Variations with dancer Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, which has been staged over fifty times across Europe.
Kolesnikov’s discography ranges from rarely heard harpsichord pieces by Louis Couperin to Tchaikovsky’s The Seasons. His album of Chopin’s Mazurkas won the Diapason d’Or de l’Annee, and his sixth album featuring Bach’s Goldberg Variations was released in 2020.
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