From an early age, Evgeny Kissin has been captivating audiences with his talent. As a piano prodigy, he began his career on the stage in Moscow, where he first performed with an orchestra at the age of ten (Mozart’s Piano Concerto in D minor, K. 466). Six years later, he played Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Herbert von Karajan. Shortly afterwards, he gave a recital at Carnegie Hall in New York. After performances in Europe and the United States, he quickly gained worldwide recognition, and the teenage artist’s recording output already included more than a dozen albums.
Active on social media, Kissin is keen to talk about his concert plans and his passions, which include composition. He has published several works for solo piano and solo cello, performed by prominent musicians such as David Geringas, Jean-Guihen Queyras and Steven Isserlis. He also writes poetry in Yiddish.
Although he has been performing internationally for more than 30 years, in an interview given to British journalist Tom Gross in 2020, he was asked what he was looking forward to in his life and career. He replied, with natural and still youthful enthusiasm, that he hoped to live long enough to have time to learn everything he wanted to learn.