Evgeny Kissin was born in Moscow in 1971. He started playing piano at the age of two and was admitted to the Gnessin Specialised Musical School for Gifted Children at six. He was ten when he made his début with an orchestra, and he performed a solo concert in Moscow a year later. He attracted attention in 1984 as a 13-year-old when he performed Chopin's piano concertos with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra. He made his Western European début in 1987 at the Berlin Festival, which was followed by a European tour with the Moscow Virtuosi and conductor Vladimir Spivakov. He made his United Kingdom début in the BBC's Proms series. He took the stage in the United States for the first time in 1990, performing both of Chopin's piano concertos with the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Zubin Mehta. A week later, he gave the opening concert in a series celebrating the 100th anniversary of the foundation of Carnegie Hall.
Kissin is the recipient of numerous awards. In 1995, he became the youngest person ever to win Musical America's title 'Instrumentalist of the Year', and he was also presented with Russia's Triumph Award in 1997. Sought after all over the world, the artist regularly performs with outstanding conductors, whose numbers have included Seiji Ozawa, Claudio Abbado, Vladimir Ashkenazy, James Levine, Kurt Masur and Daniel Barenboim. He has made appearances with almost all of the world's leading orchestras, and his recordings regularly earn prestigious accolades: the 2010 album of works by Prokofiev he made with Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Philharmonia Orchestra won a Grammy Award.

Presented by: Jakobi Koncert Kft.