Denis Leonidovich Matsuev (/ma'tsujef/; Russian: Дени́с Леони́дович Мацу́ев; born June 11, 1975) is a Russian pianist. Primarily a classical pianist, he also performs
jazz occasionally.
Biography
Born in
Irkutsk,
Soviet Union, Matsuev is the only child of two musicians, his mother being a piano teacher and his father a pianist and composer. He demonstrated a musical ear at age 3, when he reproduced on the piano at home a melody that he heard on television.[1] His father subsequently became his first piano teacher. Until age 15, Matsuev studied music in Irkutsk. In 1990, he won a prize at the "New Names Charitable Foundation" competition in Irkutsk and received a stipend, $1,000 a month, from the foundation to study music in
Moscow.[1] With other young gifted musicians from Russia discovered by the foundation, Matsuev went on tour in Europe and the United States.[2]
In 1991, Matsuev moved with his parents to Moscow to continue his musical education. He studied at the Central Music School at the
Moscow Conservatory. In 1994, he took part at his first international piano competition in
Johannesburg, South Africa, where he was awarded the Grand Prix. In the same year, he entered the Moscow Conservatory as a student of
Aleksey Nasedkin. After 1997, he studied under
Sergei Dorensky. Matsuev won the
11th International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1998 at age 23.[3][4][5]
Matsuev is artistic co-director of the international "Annecy Classic Festival" in
Annecy, France, with Pascal Escande. He is also the organizer and artistic director of two international festivals in Russia: "Stars on Baikal" in his native city of Irkutsk and the annual music festival "Crescendo".[1]
In 2012 Matsuev[6] became artistic director of the 1st International "Astana Piano Passion" Festival and Competition, and in 2013 he was artistic director of the International Festival and Competition "Sberbank DEBUT" in
Kyiv.
Matsuev and 80 other Russian artists signed a collective letter "to support the position of President
Vladimir Putin on
Ukraine and
Crimea."[7][8]
In 2018 Matsuev was awarded the Russian
Order of Honour. In 2022, due to his public support of Vladimir Putin, Matsuev's appearance with the Vienna Philharmonic in New York on February 25, 2022, was cancelled and he was replaced by pianist Seong-Jin Cho.[11][12]
Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 1(1917 Edition), Stravinsky Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra (1929), Shchedrin Piano Concerto No. 2 (1936) Denis Matsuev, Piano The Mariinsky Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev. Mariinsky Label 2015.
Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 2, Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2. CD, Mariinsky Label January 2018