Juror 2023

Konstantin Scherbakov

Konstantin Scherbakov

Konstantin Scherbakov

At only eleven years old Konstantin Scherbakov gave his stage debut. He was trained by the legendary Professor Lev Naumov at the Moscow Tchaikovsky conservatory. After his sensational win at the first Rachmaninoff competition in Moscow (1983), further competition achievements followed, including in Zurich, Bolzano, Rome and Montreal. Beginning his success in Western Europe in 1990 at the International Chamber Music Festival in Asolo he played the complete works of Rachmaninoff in the presence of the great master Swjatoslaw Richter. Concerts and tours throughout all of Europe followed. In 1995 he was designated as “BBC International Artist”.

As one of the most important protagonists of the label “Naxos” Konstantin Scherbakov has recorded more than 50 CDS for “Naxos”, but also “Marco Polo”, “Emi Classics”, “Two Pianists” and the “Steinway & Sons” label with a repertoire covering wide specters of piano literature: from Bach and Scarlatti to J. Strauss and Scriabin, from Beethoven over to Medtner, Respighi and Shostakovich. For “Marco Polo”, the first 14 CDs of a project encompassing 15 CDs have been released, presenting the complete piano works of Leopold Godowsky. The fifth and seventh volume were awarded with the German Record Critics’ Award. In 2011, Sherbakov’s recordings of 24 preludes and fugues by Shostakovich were awarded the MIDEM Cannes Classical Award. Other distinguished CD projects of the pianist include the complete recording of Beethoven’s symphonies arranged for piano by F. Liszt, whereas two CDs from this set have also been appointed the German Record Critics’ Award. The complete piano repertoire of Tchaikovsky, Sriabin, Medtner, Arensky and Respighi, as well as Rachmaninoff’s piano concertos, the complete solo works by Shostakovich, Respighi and Godowsky mark further milestones in Scherbakov’s remarkable recording career. His latest recording projects for “Steinway & Sons” are 24 Etudes d’execution transcendante by Liszt and Lyapunov (2018) and the 32 piano sonatas by L. v. Beethoven to the composer’s 250th anniversary.

Konstantin Scherbakov performs in important venues, such as the Cologne Philharmonic Hall and the Herkulessaal in Munich, the Tonhalle Zurich and Wigmore Hall London, Liederhalle Stuttgart, Congress Hall Lucerne, the Vienne Konzerthaus, the Great Hall of the Moscow conservatory, the Beethovenhalle Bonn, KKL Lucerne, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Musikhalle Hamburg, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin, Rudolfinum Prague, Atheneum Bucharest, Casal Hall and Metropolitan Theater Tokyo, Victoria Hall Singapore, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Arts Center Seoul and Warsaw Philharmonic Hall, among others. As a soloist he has performed with over 60 orchestras, including the Duisburg, Stuttgart and Bremen Philharmonics, Münchner Sinfoniker, the Staatskapelle Weimar, the Süddeutsche Philharmonie, the MDR Sinfonieorchester, Ulster Orchestra, Ukrainian National Orchestra, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo Symphony Orchestra, I Pomeriggi Musicali Milan, New Zealand Symphony, George Enescu Philharmonic Bucharest, Lithuanian National Orchestra, Orchestra national d’Île-de-France, Sofia Philharmonic, Montreal Symphony and certainly all great orchestras of Russia. He has played with conductors such as Georg Alexander Albrecht, Rudolf Barshai, Aldo Ceccato, Arnold Kath, Yoel Levi, Dmitri Liss, Christian Mandeal, Kirill Petrenko, Verli Polyanski, Nello Santi, Juri Simonov, Vassili Sinajsky and Christian Thielemann. Konstantin Scherbakov has been a guest at important festival, among them the Salzburg Festival, the Frankfurt, Bregenz, Bad Kissingen, Evian, Colmar, Bodensee and Lucerne festival, Klavier-Festival Ruhr, Beethoven Festival Bonn, Schubertiade Feldkirch and Schwarzenberg, Singapore Piano Festival, Piano Rarities Husum, Beethoven Festival Krakow and Warsaw, Lebanon Music Festival, Primavera concertistica Lugano, Liszt Festival in Raiding and Weimar, Piano Festival Lucerne and many more – in Italy, France New Zealand, USA, Russia, Sweden and Switzerland.

Since 1998, Konstantin Scherbakov is a professor at the Zurich Universtiy of Arts. Many of his students have won prizes at international competitions, most recently Yulianna Avdeeva, winner of the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 2010. Konstantin Scherbakov is a jury member of many international piano competitions, such as Busoni in Bolzano, ARD in Munich, Liszt in Weimar and competitions in Rio de Janeiro, Havana, Seoul and Hamburg.