Mikhail Voskresensky, piano

As the first-prize winner of the Schumann Competition, the Enescu Competition in Bucharest, and the first Van Cliburn Competition, Voskresensky captivates his audiences with his stirring interpretations of the great piano repertoire across all styles.

Born in Berdyansk (Ukraine), Voskresensky graduated from the Moscow Conservatory. His teachers included the famous Lev Oborin (winner of first prize at the first Chopin Competition in Warsaw), Ilya Klyachko, Jacob Milstein, Boris Zemlyansky, and Leonid Roizman (organ). Voskresensky’s career began with a performance of Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto in Warsaw with the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra under the direction of Yevgeny Svetlanov.

In 1957, he performed the European premiere of Shostakovich’s Second Piano Concerto at the Prague Spring Festival in the presence of the composer himself, who had previously given him several private lessons. His YouTube channel, “Mikhail Voskresensky – Pianist,” features over 100 videos and recordings of his concerts and orchestral performances.

His most recent live recordings include 27 of Mozart’s piano concertos and all of his sonatas, all of Beethoven’s piano concertos along with the Choral Fantasy, as well as numerous other concertos. Voskressen is a professor at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and head of the piano department. Since 1992, he has also been a visiting professor at the Toho Gakuen School in Tokyo.

His students have won over 120 international prizes, including 61 gold medals. Among them are Varvara Nepomnyashchaya, Stanislav Igolinsky, Temirshan Ershanov, Yuri Faworin, Alexander Guindin, Amir Tebenichin, Sergei Koudriakow, Alexei Nabiulin, Yevgeniya Vorontsova, Mikhail Yanovitsky, Oleg Marshev, Sergei Neller, Alexei Kurbatov, Yuri Martynov, and many others. He served as a juror at numerous international competitions, as well as at the Tchaikovsky and Scriabin competitions (as jury chairman) in Moscow.

Voskresensky was awarded Russia’s highest artistic title, “People’s Artist of Russia” (1989), and the Japanese “Rising Sun and Golden Rays” Medal, which was awarded to him by the Emperor of Japan.

In June 2022, Voskresensky left Russia with his family in protest against the war in Ukraine and emigrated to the United States. In the U.S., he was immediately in high demand. He was invited to serve as a visiting professor at The Juilliard School. His concerts as part of the “Lilac Series” in Manhattan, at the Piano Texas Festival, the Northern Light Minnesota Festival, Rowan University, the Eastman School, and other venues were a resounding success.

In July 2023, he gave master classes and a concert at the Aspen Festival in Colorado. In the coming season, he will lead masterclasses at Yale University, the Curtis Institute, the Manhattan School, in Boston, at the Berkeley Conservatory, at Indiana University, and other locations. He has been invited to serve as a jury member at several American competitions.