Kirill Gerstein

Fascination for musical discovery combined with boundless curiosity, imagination, and virtuosity have 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 creations, jazz, and cabaret – has nourished relationships with many of the world’s leading orchestras, conductors, instrumentalists, singers, composers, festivals, recording labels, and media platforms.

Most recently, Gerstein was Artist-in-Residence with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Spotlight Artist with the London Symphony Orchestra, Resident Artist at the Festival Aix-en-Provence, and curated a three-part “Busoni and his World” concert series at London’s Wigmore Hall. He also released an acclaimed album with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Kirill Petrenko celebrating Rachmaninov’s 150th anniversary, presented, alongside jazz master, Brad Mehldau, an innovative program contrasting composed and improvised music as part of his residency at the Ruhr Piano Festival, and, at Tanglewood, performed Berlin cabaret songs of the 1920s with iconic performance artist and composer, HK Gruber. 

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

Gerstein’s world première recording of Thomas Adès’ Concerto for Piano and Orchestra with the Boston Symphony conducted by the composer was nominated for three Grammys and received the 2020 Gramophone Award. Other noteworthy Gerstein releases include Strauss’s Enoch Arden with the great Swiss actor, Bruno Ganz (Wings of Desire, The Downfall); Tchaikovsky’s complete Piano Concertos (including the 1^st Concerto in the composer’s original urtext version) with Semyon Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic; The Gershwin Moment with the St. Louis Symphony and David Robertson, including special appearances from American singer-songwriter Storm Large and legendary vibraphonist, Gary Burton; and Mozart Four-Hand Piano Sonatas with Ferenc Rados. In the current season, Gerstein will be featured in a week of concerto and recital broadcasts on BBC3. He also performs the Gershwin Piano Concerto on ZDF German national television’s traditional New Year’s Eve broadcast from Dresden. 

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

Gerstein is dedicated to learning. He is currently Professor of Piano at Berlin’s Hanns Eisler Hochschule and on the faculty of Kronberg Academy. At Kronberg Academy, his series of free online seminars featuring conversations with the 21st Century’s leading artistic minds has to date reached an audience of over 150,000 viewers. His guests have included Ai Weiwei, Brad Melhdau, 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 coaches at the Verbier Festival Academy and at IMS Prussia Cove.

Highlights of the current season include the closing concert of the Musikfest Berlin performing Messiaen’s From the Canyons to the Stars with Sir Simon Rattle and the Karajan Academy; the Berg Kammerkonzert with Ilya Gringolts and Heinz Holliger and Chamber Orchestra of Europe; marking Ferruccio Busoni’s centenary with performances of his Piano Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de France, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon; Rachmaninov’s 3^rd Piano Concerto with Santtu-Matias Rouvali and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; Schoenberg’s Ode to Napoleon paired with Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto with the Wiener Symphoniker and Robin Ticciati; returns to Japan and Korea performing Brahms 2^nd Piano Concerto; both Shostakovich Piano Concertos with the Staatskapelle Dresden and Marie Jacquot; return engagements with the orchestras of St. Louis, San Francisco, Pittsburgh and Atlanta; and a Carnegie Hall recital including the premiere of Francisco Coll’s Two Waltzes towards Civilization (also in Severance Hall Cleveland, Montreal, and Napa), alongside further recitals in Vienna (Musikverein); Berlin (Boulez Saal), and London (Wigmore Hall). Gerstein also play-conducts the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (Beethoven 4), the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris (a program of Mozart, Salieri and Beethoven Piano Concerti), the Budapest Festival Orchestra (Rhapsody in Blue) and the Czech Philharmonic (Beethoven 1). 

Born in 1979 in Voronezh, Russia, Gerstein attended one of the country’s special music schools for gifted children and taught himself to play jazz at home by listening to his parents’ record collection. Following a chance encounter with Gary Burton in St. Petersburg when he was 14, he was invited as the youngest student to study at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. At the age of 16, Gerstein completed his undergraduate and graduate degrees at New York’s Manhattan School of Music, followed by further studies with Dmitri Bashkirov in Madrid and Ferenc Rados in Budapest. First Prize winner at the 10th Arthur Rubinstein Competition, in 2010, Gerstein received the prestigious Gilmore Artist Award, as well as an Avery Fisher Career Grant. He was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Musical Arts from the Manhattan School of Music in 2021.