Vladimir Feltsman

A regular guest soloist with every leading orchestra in the United States, Mr. Feltsman appears on the most prestigious concert series and music festivals over the world.

Mr. Feltsman’s 06-07 season will be highlighted in the fall of 2006 with a performance of all of the Mozart Sonatas on the Walter pianoforte built for him by Paul McNaulty. in five concerts at the Mannes School of Music and the New School’s Tisch Center as conductor of a production of “Cosi fan Tutte” at the famed MariinskyTheater in St. Petersburg in December of 06. His 2006-07 season also includes returns to Carnegie Hall performing Ravel’s Left Hand Concerto with the National Radio Orchestra of France with Myung Wha Chung conducting, a return to the Pittsburgh Symphony to perform Shostakovich 1st Concerto with Vassily Sinasky conducting, a return to the Singapore Symphony to perform Rachmaninoff’s 3rd Concerto with Okko Kamu conducting and performances with the Yomuiri Nippon Orchestra of the Brahms 2nd Concerto with Yuri Temirkanov conducting. In the Fall of 06 Mr. Feltsman will perform in Korea and Singapore with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic under Yuri Temirkanov. In addition, he performs recitals in Tokyo, Oaska, Seattle, New York, La Jolla, Phoenix, Kansas City, Aspen, Philadelphia and Fresno, and gives a performance of the Brahms 2nd Piano Concerto with the Festival Casals Orchestra in San Juan, Puerto Rico in February of 2007.

Vladimir Feltsman’s 2005-2006 season included a return to Carnegie Hall in recital, to the Van Cliburn Foundation Piano Series in recital, a tour of the southeastern U.S. with the Rotterdam Philharmonic (Valery Gergiev conducting), playing and conducting with the Seattle and New Jersey Symphonies, playing with Milwaukee Symphony orchestra. Mr. Feltsman made his twelfth consecutive appearance at the Aspen Music Festival in the summer of 2005 and returned to the Ravinia Festival for his fourth appearance in five years.

Vladimir Feltsman’s 2004-05 season included performances with the San Francisco, Seattle, and New World symphonies, performances with the NHK and Sapporo Orchestras of Japan, and the Singapore Symphony, and recitals in Tokyo, Atlanta, San Juan, and Aspen. He played and conducted the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.

Mr. Feltsman’s vast repertoire encompasses music from the Baroque to 20th century composers. He expressed his lifelong devotion to the music of J.S. Bach in a cycle of concerts which included major clavier works of the composer and spanned four consecutive seasons (1992-1996) at the Tisch Center for the Performing Arts at the 92nd Street Y in New York. His recent project, Masterpieces of the Russian Underground, unfolded a panorama of Russian contemporary music through the unprecedented survey of piano and chamber works of fourteen different composers from Shostakovich to the present day and was presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in January 2003 with great success. Mr. Feltsman served as Artistic Director for this project as well as performing in most of the pieces presented during the three concert cycle. The programs included a number of North American premieres and were also performed in Portland, Oregon and Tucson, Arizona at the University of Arizona.

Born in Moscow in 1952, Mr. Feltsman debuted with the Moscow Philharmonic at age 11. In 1969, he entered the Moscow Tchaikovsky State Conservatory of Music to study piano under the guidance of Professor Jacob Flier. He also studied conducting at both the Moscow and Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) Conservatories. In 1971, Mr. Feltsman won the Grand Prix at the Marguerite Long International Piano Competition in Paris; this was followed by intensive touring throughout the former Soviet Union, Europe and Japan.

In 1979, because of his growing discontent with the official Soviet ideology and rigid governmental control of the arts, Mr. Feltsman made his intention to emigrate from the Soviet Union clear by applying for an exit visa. In response, he was immediately banned from performing in public. After eight years of struggle and virtual artistic exile, he was finally granted permission to leave the Soviet Union. Upon his arrival in the United States in 1987, Mr. Feltsman was warmly greeted at the White House, where he performed his very first concert in North America. That same year, his debut at Carnegie Hall established him as a major pianist on the American scene.

Sharing the great tradition of piano playing has become increasingly important to Mr. Feltsman, who holds the Distinguished Chair of Professor of Piano at the State University of New York, New Paltz and teaches at the Mannes College of Music in New York City. He is the founder and Artistic Director of the International Festival-Institute Piano Summer at New Paltz, a comprehensive month-long training program for advanced piano students which offers a unique, multifaceted approach to all aspects of piano performance and attracts musicians from all over the world.

Mr. Feltsman’s extensive discography has been released on the Sony Classical, Music Heritage Society and Camerata, Tokyo. His discography includes six albums of clavier works of J.S. Bach, recordings of Beethoven’s last five piano sonatas, solo piano works of Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, and Messiaen, as well as concerti by Bach, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev. Camerata released Mr. Feltsman’s performance of the Brahms 2nd Piano Concerto with the Cologne Radio Orchestra with Hans Vonk conducting.

Mr. Feltsman, who became a U.S. citizen in 1995, lives in upstate New York.

Website: http://www.feltsman.com