Denis Kozhukhin

Photo: Felix Broede

Winner of the First Prize in the 2010 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels at the age of 23, Denis Kozhukhin’s performances have been praised by critics as “spellbinding”, “imperious”, and “mesmerizing.” Technically flawless, Kozhukhin combines wisely the brilliance and power of his playing with a masterful sense of form, maturity, and unique sensitivity.

Kozhukhin frequently appears with many of the leading international orchestras, such as Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony, Staatskapelle Berlin, Chicago Symphony, London Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, HR-Sinfonieorchester, NDR Radiophilharmonie, Vienna Symphony, Orchestre National de France, Mariinsky Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and NHK Symphony, among others. He regularly performs under the batons of Daniel Barenboim, Sir Simon Rattle, Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Jurowski, Gianandrea Noseda, Paavo Järvi, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Jaap van Zweden, Thomas Dausgaard, Stephan Deneve, Jakub Hrusa, Vassily Petrenko, Kristjan Järvi, Emmanuel Krivine, Jaime Martin, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Xian Zhang, Rafael Payare, Donald Runnicles, Vasilly Sinaisky and Yuri Temirkanov.

As a recitalist, recent and upcoming highlights include appearances at the Concertgebouw’s Master Pianists Series, Wigmore Hall, Musikverein, Vienna Konzerthaus, Munich Herkulessaal, Rotterdam De Doelen, Cologne Philharmonie, Verbier Festival, Auditorio Nacional de Madrid, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Théâtre du Châtelet and Boulez Saal.

His debut recording for the label Pentatone, featuring Grieg Piano Concerto and Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1 with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin and Vassily Sinaisky was received with rave reviews, including Gramophone Editor’s Choice and Disc of the month in Fono Forum and Stereophone.

An avid chamber musician, Kozhukhin frequently collaborates with such artists as Janine Jansen, Julian Rachlin, Vadim Repin, Leonidas Kavakos, Michael Barenboim, Vilde Frang, Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, the Jerusalem Quartet, the Pavel Haas Quartet, Elena Bashkirova, Radovan Vlatkovic, Jörg Widmann, Emmanuel Pahud, Alisa Weilerstein, Nicolas Alstaedt, Julian Steckel, and Pablo Ferrández, among others.
 

Born in Nizhni Novgorod, Russia, in 1986 into a family of musicians, Denis Kozhukhin began his piano studies at the age of five with his mother. As a boy, he attended the Balakirev School of Music where he studied under Natalia Fish. From 2000 to 2007, Kozhukhin studied at the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid with Dimitri Bashkirov and Claudio Martinez-Mehner. Kozhukhin completed his studies at the Piano Academy at Lake Como where he received advice from Fou Ts’ong, Stanislav Yudenitch, Peter Frankl, Boris Berman, Charles Rosen and Andreas Staier, and with Kirill Gerstein in Stuttgart. In recent years he has been mentored by maestro Daniel Barenboim. He is represented worldwide by CAMI Music.

Denis Kozhukhin has been a Steinway Artist since 2013.