KATIA SKANAVI

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Katia Skanavi (born in Moscow, 1971) is a Russian pianist of Greek descent.

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Born in Moscow, Katia Skanavi has been impressing audiences, critics and fellow performers alike with her vibrant pianism and sensitive musicality. A former finalist at the Van Cliburn competition, she is a favoured partner of musicians of the calibre of Yuri Bashmet, Gidon Kremer and Kurt Masur, both as a concerto soloist and a chamber musician. She is prized for her command of a rich and vivid tonal palette, and a virtuosity that is allied to intuitive and thoughtful interpretation.

Among highlights of recent seasons have been recital and orchestral engagements in Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Moscow and Paris. She has appeared at choice European festivals including La Roque d’Anthéron, Gidon Kremer’s Lockenhaus Festival and with cellist Truls Mørk in Stavanger. She has also played at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, and in Japan, Canada, and throughout the USA. Her most notable American engagements have included recitals in New York, Ravinia and Washington and concerto appearances with the Symphony Orchestras of Cincinnati, Dallas, Indianapolis and San Francisco. Current and forthcoming engagements include her debut at the Berlin Philharmonie (with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and Eri Klas), Shostakovich’s First Concerto at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw with Moscow Soloists and Yuri Bashmet, Schumann’s Concerto with Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Dmitry Sitkovetsky, a renewal of her association with Kurt Masur and the Orchestre National de France and a national recital tour for Musica Viva Australia.

Katia Skanavi’s repertoire is an eclectic mix of music from the Classical period to contemporary music. She has recorded several CDs, mainly for the Lyrinx label. Her discs of works by Schumann, Rachmaninov and character pieces by Tchaikovsky, recorded live in Marseille, were highly regarded by the critics, and a Chopin recital (on the Pro Piano label) was named ‘Classical Recording of the Month’ by Gramophone magazine. Her most recent Lyrinx recording is dedicated to works by Chopin composed between 1843 and 1845.

Katia Skanavi comes from a culturally rich Greek – Russian family. She began her musical studies in Moscow at the School for Gifted Children and at the age of 12 she gave her first public concert with orchestra in the Grand Hall of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, performing Kabalevsky’s third piano concerto under the composer’s direction. On her 18th birthday she became a multiple prizewinner in the finals of the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud Competition in Paris. Appearances followed at the world’s major concert venues, including the Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and Suntory Hall in Tokyo. She nevertheless continued to study, at the Conservatoire National in Paris and the Moscow Conservatory, then at the Cleveland Institute with Sergei Babayan. In 1994 she won the Maria Callas Competition in Greece, home of her great-grandfather, and was awarded Greek citizenship. Further success at the Van Cliburn competition came in 1997. She currently lives in Moscow with her husband, the actor Genia Stychkin, and their three children.
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