Denis Kozhukhin

BIOGRAPHY

Winner of the First Prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels in 2010 at the age of 23, he is considered one of the best pianists of his generation.

Kozhukhin frequently collaborates with many of the major international orchestras, such as the London, Chicago and San Francisco Symphonies, the Israel Philharmonic, Rotterdam and London Philharmonic, as well as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Staatskapelle Berlin, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Philharmonia Orch. He also regularly participates in festivals such as the Verbier, Gstaadt, Grafenegg, Dresden, Tivoli, Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival, Intonations, Tsinandali and the BBC Proms.

During this season he has played again with groups such as the Philharmonic Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Stockholm, the NDR Radiophilharmonie, the RTE National Symphony, the Royal Liège Philharmonic Orchestra and, in addition, he is an artist in residence at the OBC with whom he performs all of Rachmaninov's piano concertos. He has also given solo recitals at the Chicago Symphony Hall, the Boulez Saal, the Koln Philharmonie, the Frankfurt Alte Oper and toured Europe with Janine Jansen.

His most recent recording, the Symphonic variations by César Franck with the Luxembourg Philharmonic conducted by Gustavo Gimeno, was published by Pentatone in 2020 and got great media reviews. His latest solo album includes Songs without words by Mendelssohn and the Lyrical pieces by Grieg, was chosen Gramophone Record of the Month and was nominated for the Opus Klassik Awards in the Soloist and Instrumentalist Disc of the Year categories.

Kozhukhin is often invited to the most prestigious festivals and collaborates with artists such as Janine Jansen, Jörg Widmann, Julian Rachlin, Vadim Repin, Leonides Kavakos, Michael Barenboim, Vilde Frang, Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Elena Bashkirova, Radovan Vlatkovic, Em Alisa Weilerste , Nicolas Alstaedt, Julian Steckel, Pablo Ferrández and Alexandra Conunova, among others.

Born in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, in 1986 into a family of musicians, Denis Kozhukhin began his piano studies at the age of five with his mother. He later entered the Balakirev School of Music, where he was a student of Natalia Fish. From 2000 to 2007, he studied at the Reina Sofia School of Music in Madrid, with Dmitri Bashkirov and Claudio Martinez-Mehner. He completed his training at the Como Lake Piano Academy with Fou Ts'ong, Stanislav Yudenitch, Peter Frankl, Boris Berman, Charles Rosen and Andreas Staier, and with Kirill Gerstein in Stuttgart.

In recent years, his mentor has been Daniel Barenboim.