“Denis Kozhukhin’s win [at the 2010 Queen Elisabeth Competition] is incontestable, and is compounded by his incredible popular success. The Russian pianist plotted a flawless route through the competition, where his radiant musicality was unceasingly served by stunning technical mastery. There is a joy in his playing which drives him right to the very essence of the possibilities contained within a score....At the age of only 23, he is already in the company of the greats.”
Le Soir, May 2010 ... read full bioDenis Kozhukhin was launched onto the international scene after winning First Prize in the 2010 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. Previous awards include 1st Prize at the Vendome Prize in Lisbon in 2009, and 3rd Prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2006.
Born in Nizhni Novgorod, Russia, in 1986 into a family of musicians, Denis Kozhukhin began his piano studies at the age of four with his mother. As a boy, he attended the Balakirev School of Music where he studied under Natalia Fish. From 2000 to 2007, Kozhukhin was a pupil at the Reine Sofia School of Music in Madrid learning with Dimitri Bashkirov and Claudio Martinez-Mehner. Upon graduating, he received his diploma personally from the Queen of Spain and was named best student in his year and twice best chamber group with his own Cervantes Trio. After his studies in Madrid, Kozhukhin was invited to study at the Piano Academy at Lake Como where he received tuition from amongst others Fou Ts’ong, Stanislav Yudenitch, Peter Frankl, Boris Berman, Charles Rosen and Andreas Staier.
Kozhukhin has appeared at many of the world’s most prestigious festivals and concert halls including the Verbier Festival, where he won the Prix d’Honneur in 2003, Progetto Martha Argerich in Lugano, Klavier-Festival Ruhr, Rheingau Music Festival, Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival, Santander International Festival, Carnegie Hall, Auditorio Nacional Madrid, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Milan, Palau de la Musica Valencia, Théâtre du Châtelet and Auditorium du Louvre Paris.
Highlights of the 10/11 included four concerts with the Netherlands Philharmonic with Karabits in the Concertgebouw, a televised concert with Belgian National Orchestra with Boreyko in the Palais de Beaux Arts, Brussels, and with the Prague Philharmonia with Hrusa. Having received the LOTTO-Förderpreis prize at the Rheingau Festival for his debut in 2010 he returned this year with Les Siecles and Roth. As a recitalist he made hugely successful debut tours of Japan and Brazil as well as appearing in the Herkulessaal Munich, De Doelen Rotterdam, the Montpellier Festival, the Berlin Klavierfieber Festival and opening the Oslo Chamber Music Festival.
In the 11/12 season Kozhukhin will perform the complete cycle of Prokofiev concerti with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra working with Jun Maerkl, Xian Zhang, Lan Shui, Ludovic Morlot and Martyn Brabbins. Other major orchestral concerts ahead include Vienna Symphony with Alsop, St Petersburg Philharmonic with Krivine, Baltimore Symphony with Alsop, Seattle Symphony with Morlot and Luxembourg Philharmonic with Sinaisky. He returns to Japan in Spring 13 when Kozhukhin will perform the complete cycle of Prokofiev sonatas at Musashino Hall.
Kozhukhin is a committed chamber musician and has worked with amongst others, Leonidas Kavakos, Renaud and Gautier Capucon, Radovan Vlatkovic, Dora Schwarzberg, Alisa Weilerstein, Jacob Koranyi and Alissa Margulis. Denis Kozhukhin is currently studying at the Staatliche Hochschule fur Music und Darstellende Kunst in Stuttgart with Kirill Gerstein. He gratefully acknowledges the support of the Solti Foundation from whom he received an award in 2010.
