Cleveland International Piano Competition laureate Arseniy Gusev debuts on the Steinway & Sons label with a unique and compelling program of music by Bach, Dowland, Da Caserta and Retinsky.

Arseniy Gusev's performances have been described as a blend of superb technical proficiency and lyrical romanticism seldom found in equal measure, especially in one so young.
 

Can music be truly given? It is a shared experience, but people never have less after sharing; in fact, they often have more. When King Friedrich II, according to the famous story, shared his musical theme with Bach, Bach offered him much more in return—a little universe with the King’s theme in the center. The Musical Offering is Bach’s view on how to model an ideal kingdom, a kingdom of sounds. When I was modeling the program for this album, I was thinking about it in a cosmological and partly political fashion as well—by creating an environment where pieces composed centuries apart can co-exist in a harmonious way, representing my values and beliefs to their fullest possible extent.

— Arseniy Gusev
 

ALBUM CREDITS

Musical Offering - Bach, Dowland, Retinsky / Arseniy Gusev • STNS 30224

Release Date: 9/6/2024

Recorded July 12-13, 2023 at Sono Luminus Studios, Boyce, Virginia.

Producer: Dan Merceruio

Engineer:  Joshua Frey
Mixing and Mastering: Daniel Shores

Executive Producers: Eric Feidner, Jon Feidner, Vivian Chiu

Art Direction: Jackie Fugere

Design: Cover to Cover Design, Anilda Carrasquillo
Photography: Chris Lee
Product Coordinator: Renée Oakford

Piano Technician:  John Veitch
Piano: Steinway Model D #590904 (New York)
 

About the Artist

Arseniy Gusev, a young pianist and composer, was born in St. Petersburg in 1998 and has been studying music since the age of five. In 2015, he went to the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. In 2017, he graduated with honors from the Specialized Music School of the St. Petersburg Rimsky- Korsakov State Conservatory and afterward studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory itself. In 2018 he moved to the US. In 2022 Arseniy received his bachelor’s degree (as a pianist and composer) from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and in 2024 he received his master’s degree in composition at Yale University. Currently he is pursuing a master’s degree in piano at the Juilliard School. Among his teachers are Sergei Babayan, Keith Fitch, Chris Theofanidis, and David Lang.

Arseniy actively performs in the US and abroad, and has given solo concerts in Austria, Belgium, Italy, Slovakia, Russia, and Germany. His compositions are performed in Mariinsky Theater, Carnegie Hall, Konzerthaus Dortmund, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Shanghai Symphony Hall, and other major venues. He collaborated with such conductors as Arkady Steinluht, Dmitry Vasiliev, Robert Carter Austin, Alexander Titov, Ilya Derbilov, Mikhail Golikov, and Mikhail Mosenkov, and performed together with such musicians as Jaime Laredo, Sharon Robinson, Olga Kaler, and Anthony Roth Costanzo. Arseniy participated in master classes of Garrick Ohlsson, Samuel Adler, Andrew Norman, Joan Tower, Dmitry Bashkirov, Grigory Gruzman, Jerome Rose, Alexander Mndoyants, Nina Lelchuk, and others.

Arseniy is a laureate of many prestigious competitions, such as the Dorothy McKenzie Artist Award, Cleveland Piano Virtu(al)oso Competition, Singapore International Piano Competition, Three Arts Piano Competition, Cleveland Composers Guild Contest, “Another Space” Composition Competition, International Gavrilin Competition, International Competition "Performer-Composer", and others.

"Newburyport Current" described his performances as a blend of superb technical proficiency and lyrical romanticism seldom found in equal measure, especially in one so young."

"Petersburg Gazette" outlined Arseniy's music as "melodic and cantabile", "continuing the traditions of Russian school".

Arseniy has an exclusive contract with “Kompozitor” publisher house. Among recently published works are 24 Postludes (2018) and 3 Toccatas (2020).

You can find out more about Arseniy Gusev at arseniygusev.com.

About Steinway & Sons label

The STEINWAY & SONS music label produces exceptional albums of solo piano music across all genres. The label — a division of STEINWAY & SONS, maker of the world’s finest pianos — is a perfect vessel for producing the finest quality recordings by some of the most talented pianists in the world.