Andrei Gavrilov
GEN
Full Biography
Andrei Gavrilov was born in Moscow in 1955. He won first prize in the 1974 International Tchaikovsky Competition and in the same year made a triumphant international debut at the Salzburg Festival, substituting for Sviatoslav Richter. He has subsequently enjoyed a distinguished international career which has included performances with many of the world's greatest orchestras.
Andrei Gavrilov made his London debut in 1976 with Paavo Berglund and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in the Royal Festival Hall. In 1978 he performed with the Berlin Philharmonic in a major European concert tour. By 1980 he had performed in all the major cultural centres in the world.
Andrei Gavrilov made a triumphant return to the British concert platform in 1984, after a politically enforced absence, giving recitals at the Barbican and the Royal Festival Hall. He successfully petitioned Mikhail Gorbachev for his freedom, and became the first Soviet artist to be granted permission to stay in the West without having to file for political asylum.
Following his Carnegie Hall debut in 1985, Andrei Gavrilov was proclaimed as a major artist by the New York Times' Donal Henahan. He has since performed with orchestras in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Montreal, London, Vienna, Paris, Berlin, Munich, Amsterdam and Tokyo, with conductors including Abbado, Haitink, Muti, Ozawa, Svetlanov, Tennstedt and Rattle among numerous others.

Between 1976 and 1990, Andrei Gavrilov was an exclusive artist with EMI, winning several international prizes including a Gramophone award in 1979, Deutscher Schallplattenpreis in 1981, Grand Prix International du Disque de L'Academie Charles Crois in 1985 and 1986, and International Record Critics Award (IRCA) in 1985. Among his other awards are the 1989 Premio Internazionale Accademia Musicale Chigiana (the jury of music critics proclaiming him as the greatest pianist in the world), and the Board of International Research of American Biographical Institute (ABI) Man of the Year commemorative medal, Gold Record of Achievement and World Lifetime Achievement awards, in recognition of his contribution to society. In 1998 Andrei Gavrilov was selected as one of the pianists to be featured in Philips Music Group's Great Pianists of the Twentieth Century collection.
In October 1990 Andrei Gavrilov signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon, leading to acclaimed recordings of Chopin, Prokofiev, Schubert, Bach and Grieg.
"Andrei Gavrilov is coolly masterful in Bach and Handel, and while sympathetic in Mozart, Chopin, Schumann and Grieg, his greatest achievement here is in the set of Ten Pieces that Prokofiev extracted from his Romeo and Juliet ballet. These, plus the First Piano Concerto and key works by Tchaikovsky, Scriabin (Fourth Sonata) and Rachmaninov, make for an especially desirable collection." Great Pianists of the Twentieth Century, Philips/Rob Cowan, Gramophone, November 1999
Forthcoming engagements include performances throughout the world.


2007/2008

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