Elena Kuschnerova, Piano

Biography

Elena Kuschnerova was the last pianistic
discovery of Harold Schonberg (1915-2003), music critic for the New York
Times and prolific author on great performers. After listening to her debut
CD, he dubbed her a "Pianist who grabs the imagination", and he lauded
her Scriabin CD as "the best recorded performances I am familiar with"
(American Record Guide, 2000 and 2001). 

Earlier, Kuschnerova's Prokofiev CD (1997) had been awarded the prestigious
"German Record Critics' Award (Preis der Deutschen Schalplattenkritik). 
A year later it was included on a list of the 50 best "Desert Island" piano
recordings of all time by the German music magazine SCALA. 

In its 70-year history, the Penguin Guide, the world's most venerated
source of classical reviews, has bestowed fewer than two dozen Rosettes
on piano recordings, a distinction that eluded many of history's most famous
pianists.  The most recent of these was awarded to Elena Kuschnerova's
all-Bach Recital (2001) in the Penguin Guide's 2003/04 issue.  The
team of Penguin reviewers admonished readers to "make no mistake, this
disc... is altogether outstanding. Indeed it is one of the finest Bach
recitals on the piano... the present recital leaves the listener feeling
exhilarated and purified as only the best Bach playing can."  

Born into a musical family, Elena Kuschnerova started her pianistic education
when she was 5, playing her first concerto with orchestra at the age of
9 (The f minor concerto by Bach under the baton of Emin Khachaturyan, recorded
by Moscow Radio). She excelled at the elite Moscow Central Music School
where she studied with Tatiana Kestner, also the teacher of Andrei Gavrilov
and Nikolai Lugansky, and later at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory with Sergei Dorensky.
Elena Kuschnerova was influenced by the great and controversial Russian
composer Alexander
Lazarevich Lokshin (1920-1987), who wrote a variation cycle
for her. 

Alexander L. Lokshin (1920-1987)

After graduating with an honors diploma, she spent eight years touring
in the capitals of the former Soviet Union, with occasional forays into
Western Europe. 

Moving to Germany in 1992 gave a push to Elena Kuschnerova's career.
Her recitals and CDs encompass an enormous range, from Bach to first performances
of works composed for her, and have brought her international acclaim. 
Elena Kuschnerova has concertized with a number of orchestras, in addition
to expressing her deep love for chamber music on the concert stage. 

Elena Kuschnerova played at many important Festivals such as the Gustav
Mahler Music Festival in Toblach, the
Bach
Festival in Ansbach, the Festival
of Rarities of the Piano Music in Husum, Ludwigsburger
Schlossfestspiele, Clef
de Soleil in Lille, etc. In 2002, Elena Kuschnerova premiered a piano
concerto written for her by Siegfried Matthus at the
Dresden
Festival together with Dresden Philarmonic Orchestra under the baton
of Marek Janowski. She has performed this work many times since then, including
a performance with the RSO Berlin under Michail Jurowski. 

Elena Kuschnerova has been conducting concert tours in Japan for many
years. A CD
with live recording of her 2003
Tokyo recital was released by Steinway Japan. Elena Kuschnerova's
new Stravinsky and Brahms CDs have been released in spring 2005 and the
latter has received the Supersonic Award from the music magazin
Pizzicato.
The new CD with "Seven Romantic Ballades"
composed for her by the Russian composer Mikhail Kollontay as well as Balladen
Op.10 by Brahms has been released in 2008. 

Elena Kuschnerova is also internationally recognized as a piano professor,
giving master classes in Germany,
Japan, Korea, Sweden, and the USA. Since 2006 she has been guest professor
at the Elisabeth University
of Music in Hiroshima.

Elena Kuschnerova has been a Steinway
Artist since 2002.