Denis Leonidovich Matsuev (/ma'tsujef/; Дени́с Леони́дович Мацу́ев; born June 11, 1975) is a Russian pianist. Primarily a classical pianist, he also performs jazz occasionally.

Biography

Born in Irkutsk, Soviet Union, Matsuev is the only child of two musicians, his mother being a piano teacher and his father a pianist and composer. He demonstrated a musical ear at age 3, when he reproduced on the piano at home a melody that he heard on television. His father subsequently became his first piano teacher. Until age 15, Matsuev studied music in Irkutsk. In 1990, he won a prize at the "New Names Charitable Foundation" competition in Irkutsk and received a stipend, $1,000 a month, from the foundation to study music in Moscow. With other young gifted musicians from Russia discovered by the foundation, Matsuev went on tour in Europe and the United States. In 1991, Matsuev moved with his parents to Moscow to continue his musical education. He studied at the Central Music School at the Moscow Conservatory. In 1994, he took part at his first international piano competition in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he was awarded the Grand Prix. In the same year, he entered the Moscow Conservatory as a student of Aleksey Nasedkin. After 1997, he studied under Sergei Dorensky. Matsuev won the 11th International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1998 at age 23. Matsuev is artistic co-director of the international "Annecy Classic Festival" in Annecy, France, with Pascal Escande. He is also the organizer and artistic director of two international festivals in Russia: "Stars on Baikal" in his native city of Irkutsk and the annual music festival "Crescendo". In 2012 Matsuev became artistic director of the 1st International "Astana Piano Passion" Festival and Competition, and in 2013 he was artistic director of the International Festival and Competition "Sberbank DEBUT" in Kyiv. Matsuev and 80 other Russian artists signed a collective letter "to support the position of President Vladimir Putin on Ukraine and Crimea." In February 2014, at the XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Matsuev was a torchbearer, and performed in the closing ceremony. In 2018 Matsuev was awarded the Russian Order of Honour. In 2022, due to his public support of Vladimir Putin, Matsuev's appearance with the Vienna Philharmonic in New York on February 25, 2022, was cancelled and he was replaced by pianist Seong-Jin Cho.

Awards, titles and honors

Discography