Aftertalk with K. Gerstein

Fascination with musical discovery, combined with boundless curiosity, imagination, and virtuosity, has established Kirill Gerstein as one of today’s most prolific and compelling performers.

Gerstein is a searching artist. As a pianist, curator, educator, musical leader, and artistic collaborator, his exploration of resonant themes across a vast spectrum of repertoire—from Baroque suites and Classical concerti to contemporary compositions, jazz, and cabaret—has fostered deep relationships with many of the world’s leading orchestras, conductors, instrumentalists, singers, composers, festivals, recording labels, and media platforms.

Most recently, Gerstein served as Artist-in-Residence with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Spotlight Artist with the London Symphony Orchestra, and Resident Artist at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence. He also curated a three-part Busoni and His World concert series at London’s Wigmore Hall. His latest album, recorded with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Kirill Petrenko to celebrate Rachmaninov’s 150th anniversary, has received widespread acclaim. Additionally, he collaborated with jazz master Brad Mehldau on an innovative program contrasting composed and improvised music as part of his residency at the Ruhr Piano Festival. At Tanglewood, he performed Berlin cabaret songs from the 1920s with the iconic performance artist and composer HK Gruber.

Media projects, broadcasts, and digital innovation form an integral part of Gerstein’s creative work. He has recorded for Platoon/Apple Music, myrios, Deutsche Grammophon, DECCA, and Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings. His performances have been filmed by Unitel, Accentus Music, and EuroArts, and broadcast on ORF, BBC, ARTE, and Marquee TV, as well as streamed on medici.tv and STAGE+. His latest media project, Music in Time of War, pairs late piano works by Claude Debussy with pieces by the Armenian priest, musicologist, and composer Komitas Vardapet. Expanding the traditional album concept, the recording is integrated into a hardcover book featuring documentary images and specially commissioned original scholarship.

Gerstein’s world premiere recording of Thomas Adès’ Concerto for Piano and Orchestra with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the composer, was nominated for three Grammys and won the 2020 Gramophone Award. Other notable recordings include Enoch Arden by Richard Strauss with the great Swiss actor Bruno Ganz (Wings of Desire, The Downfall), Tchaikovsky’s complete piano concertos—including the First Concerto in its original urtext version—with Semyon Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic, The Gershwin Moment with the St. Louis Symphony and David Robertson, featuring guest appearances by American singer-songwriter Storm Large and legendary vibraphonist Gary Burton, and Mozart Four-Hand Piano Sonatas with Ferenc Rados. This season, Gerstein will be featured in a week of concerto and recital broadcasts on BBC Radio 3. He will also perform Gershwin’s Piano Concerto on ZDF’s traditional New Year’s Eve broadcast from Dresden.

A true champion of music of our time, Gerstein has commissioned and premiered new works by Timo Andres, Chick Corea, Alexander Goehr, Oliver Knussen, and Brad Mehldau, among others. Since giving the world premiere of Thomas Adès’ Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in 2019, he has performed the work over 50 times with 20 different orchestras across three continents. Gerstein also recently recorded Thomas Larcher’s Piano Concerto with the Bergen Philharmonic and Ed Gardner for ECM.

Gerstein is deeply committed to education. He is currently Professor of Piano at Berlin’s Hanns Eisler Hochschule and serves on the faculty of Kronberg Academy, where his free online seminar series featuring conversations with leading artistic minds of the 21st century has reached an audience of over 150,000 viewers. His distinguished guests have included Ai Weiwei, Brad Mehldau, Thomas Adès, Iván Fischer, Alex Ross, Matthew Aucoin, Kirill Serebrennikov, Elizabeth Wilson, Simon & Gerard McBurney, Robert Levin, Reinhard Goebel, Simon Callow, Emma Smith, Deborah Borda, Sir Antonio Pappano, and Kaija Saariaho. Gerstein also teaches at the Verbier Festival Academy and IMS Prussia Cove. ‍

Highlights of the current season include:

• Closing the Musikfest Berlin with Messiaen’s From the Canyons to the Stars alongside Sir Simon Rattle and the Karajan Academy

• Performing Berg’s Chamber Concerto with Ilya Gringolts, Heinz Holliger, and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe

• Marking Ferruccio Busoni’s centenary with performances of his Piano Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, BBC Symphony Orchestra, and Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon

• Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with Santtu-Matias Rouvali and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

• A performance of Schoenberg’s Ode to Napoleon paired with Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto with the Vienna Symphony and Robin Ticciati

• Returns to Japan and Korea performing Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2

• Both Shostakovich piano concertos with the Staatskapelle Dresden and Marie Jacquot

• Return engagements with the St. Louis, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras

• A Carnegie Hall recital featuring the premiere of Francisco Coll’s Two Waltzes Towards Civilization (also performed in Severance Hall Cleveland, Montreal, and Napa), with additional recitals in Vienna (Musikverein), Berlin (Boulez Saal), and London (Wigmore Hall)

• Play-conducting engagements with:

• The Chamber Orchestra of Europe (Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4)

• Orchestre de Chambre de Paris (Mozart, Salieri, and Beethoven piano concertos)

• Budapest Festival Orchestra (Rhapsody in Blue)

• Czech Philharmonic (Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1)

Born in 1979 in Voronezh, Russia, Gerstein attended a special music school for gifted children, teaching himself jazz by listening to his parents’ record collection. A chance encounter with Gary Burton in St. Petersburg at age 14 led to an invitation to study at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, making him the youngest student ever admitted. At 16, he completed his undergraduate and graduate degrees at the Manhattan School of Music, followed by further studies with Dmitri Bashkirov in Madrid and Ferenc Rados in Budapest. Winner of First Prize at the 10th Arthur Rubinstein Competition, Gerstein was awarded the prestigious Gilmore Artist Award in 2010, as well as an Avery Fisher Career Grant. In 2021, he received an Honorary Doctorate of Musical Arts from the Manhattan School of Music.

source: Künstleragentur Dr. Raab & Dr. Böhm