From Bach to Adès, pianist Kirill Gerstein’s playing is distinguished by a ferocious technique and discerning intelligence, matched with an energetic, imaginative musical presence that places him at the top of the international profession, with solo and concerto engagements taking him from Europe to the United States, East Asia and Australia.

Born in the former Soviet Union, Gerstein is an American citizen based in Berlin whose heritage combines the traditions of Russian, American and Central European music-making with an insatiable curiosity.  He grew up playing jazz, switched to classical and won the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition at just 22. Since then, he has carved out a formidable reputation as a fearless artist who makes the impossible sound easy.  These qualities and the relationships that he has developed with orchestras, conductors, instrumentalists, singers and composers, have led him to explore a huge spectrum of repertoire both new and old.

In the coming season, Gerstein will feature as a Spotlight Artist with the London Symphony Orchestra, performing four concerti across the season at the orchestra’s Barbican Centre home and on tour, including Adès with Antonio Pappano, Rachmaninov and Ravel with Susanna Mälkki, and Gershwin with Simon Rattle. Gerstein’s flair for curation recently also found expression as Artist-in-Residence with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, in presenting a three-part concert series entitled ‘Busoni and His World’ at London’s Wigmore Hall, and as resident artist at the Festival Aix-en-Provence.Elsewhere during 2023-24 season, Gerstein will reprise the Christian Tetzlaff Suite from The Tempest for violin and piano, which was written by Thomas Adès, for premières in New York, Washington and Boston. Gerstein will also appear in solo recital at Carnegie Hall New York, Chamber Music Napa Valley, the Vienna Konzerthaus and the Abu Dhabi Festival amongst others.

For this eight-city solo recital tour he is scaling new heights of virtuosity: Liszt’s powerfull Polonaise in E, Schumann’s Viennese romp Carnival of Vienna and the wildly difficult, wildly entertaining transcriptions of eccentric piano nerd, Leopold Godowsky. In the same program, he dives deep into the profundity of Chopin’s Polonaise Fantasie, and gives the world premiere of Transcendental Etude, a new commission from Australian Liza Lim.