Biography
Biography
Fascination for musical discovery combined with boundless curiosity, imagination, and virtuosity have established Kirill Gerstein as one of today’s most prolific and compelling performers. Gerstein is a searching artist. As a pianist, curator, educator, musical leader, and artistic collaborator, his exploration of resonant themes across a vast spectrum of repertoire - from Baroque suites and Classical concerti to contemporary creations, jazz, and cabaret – has nourished relationships with many of the world’s leading orchestras, conductors, instrumentalists, singers, composers, festivals, recording labels, and media platforms.
Gerstein’s 2025/26 season included the world première of Francisco Coll’s Piano Concerto with Sir Simon Rattle and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, followed by performances of the new concerto with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and its North American premiere with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Andris Nelsons. Gerstein also premiered Coll’s Two Waltzes Toward Civilization at Carnegie Hall, the Vienna Musikverein, and Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Saal. He toured Europe with Daniele Gatti and the Staatskapelle Dresden (Schumann Concerto), Korea with Klaus Mäkelä and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Brahms 1st Piano Concerto), and played piano duo concerts across North America with Brad Mehldau and in Japan with Mao Fujita. He performed Gershwin’s Concerto in F at Odeonsplatz in Munich and Rachmaninov’s Paganini Rhapsody at the BBC Proms. Gerstein was Focus Artist of the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich’s 2025/26 season, including performances of concertos by Adès, Ravel, Rachmaninov, and Bartók, conducted by Paavo Järvi and Thomas Adès. He also recorded Adès’ The Tempest Suite with Christian Tetzlaff for the Platoon label, released Chick Corea’s The Visitors with Gary Burton on ECM, and was honoured with a special prize for exceptional curation at the 2025 OPUS KLASSIK Awards.
Gerstein was previously Artist-in-Residence with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Spotlight Artist with the London Symphony Orchestra, Resident Artist at the Festival Aix-en-Provence, and curated a three-part “Busoni and his World” concert series at London’s Wigmore Hall. His 2026/27 season includes residencies with the Dresdner Philharmonie and the hr-Sinfonieorchester in Frankfurt.
Play-conducting is an increasingly central strand of Gerstein’s work, most notably with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, with whom he presented complete cycles of Beethoven piano concertos in Athens and at the Casals Forum in Kronberg, Germany. Their recording of the six concertos (including the early “Concerto No. 0”), celebrating the 2027 Beethoven anniversary year appears on the Platoon label. Conducting and leading from the keyboard, Gerstein has further performed with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris (Mozart, Salieri and Beethoven), the Budapest Festival Orchestra (Rhapsody in Blue), the Helsinki Philharmonic (Beethoven 5th Piano Concerto), the Czech Philharmonic (Beethoven 1st Piano Concerto), and the Wiener Philharmoniker (Mozart K.453).
Media projects, broadcasts, and digital innovation represent an integral part of Gerstein’s creativity. He has recorded for Platoon/Apple Music, myrios, Deutsche Grammophon, DECCA, Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings, with performances filmed by Unitel, Accentus Music, and EuroArts, broadcast on ORF, BBC, ARTE, and Marquee TV, and streamed on medici.tv and STAGE+. Gerstein’s “Music in Time of War”, pairing late piano works by Claude Debussy with pieces by Vardapet Komitas expanded the traditional album concept by integrating the album into a hardcover book containing a wealth of documentary images and original scholarship. In 2023, he released an acclaimed album with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Kirill Petrenko celebrating Rachmaninov’s 150th anniversary. Gerstein’s world première recording of Thomas Adès’ Concerto for Piano and Orchestra with the Boston Symphony conducted by the composer was nominated for three Grammys and received the 2020 Gramophone Award. Other noteworthy Gerstein albums include Strauss’s Enoch Arden with the Swiss actor, Bruno Ganz (Wings of Desire, The Downfall); Tchaikovsky’s complete Piano Concertos (including the 1st Concerto in the composer’s original urtext version) with Semyon Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic; The Gershwin Moment with the St. Louis Symphony and David Robertson, including special appearances from American singer-songwriter Storm Large and Gary Burton; and Mozart Four-Hand Piano Sonatas with Ferenc Rados.
A true champion of music of our time, Gerstein has commissioned and premièred dozens of new works by composers including Timo Andres, Matthew Aucoin, Francisco Coll, Chick Corea, Alexander Goehr, Oliver Knussen and Brad Mehldau. Gerstein recorded Thomas Larcher’s Piano Concerto with the Bergen Philharmonic and Ed Gardner for ECM. Since giving the world première of Thomas Adès’ Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in 2019, Gerstein has presented the work with 33 different orchestras on three continents. In February 2027, he performs alongside the composer in Munich at the world premiere of Adès’ »Abendlieder« for choir and piano four hands.
Gerstein is dedicated to learning. He is currently Professor of Piano at Berlin’s Hanns Eisler Hochschule and on the faculty of Kronberg Academy. At Kronberg Academy, his series of free online seminars featuring conversations with the 21st Century’s leading artistic minds has to date reached an audience of over 150,000 viewers. His guests have included Ai Weiwei, Brad Mehldau, Thomas Adès, Iván Fischer, Alex Ross, Matthew Aucoin, Kirill Serebrennikov, Elizabeth Wilson, Simon & Gerard McBurney, Robert Levin, Reinhard Goebel, Simon Callow, Emma Smith, Deborah Borda, Sir Antonio Pappano, and the late Kaija Saariaho. Gerstein also coaches at the Verbier Festival Academy and at IMS Prussia Cove.
Born in 1979 in Voronezh, Russia, Gerstein attended one of the country’s special music schools for gifted children and taught himself to play jazz at home by listening to his parents’ record collection. Following a chance encounter with Gary Burton in St. Petersburg when he was 14, he was invited as the youngest student to study at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. At the age of 16, Gerstein completed his undergraduate and graduate degrees at New York’s Manhattan School of Music, followed by further studies with Dmitri Bashkirov in Madrid and Ferenc Rados in Budapest. First Prize winner at the 10th Arthur Rubinstein Competition, in 2010, Gerstein received the prestigious Gilmore Artist Award, as well as an Avery Fisher Career Grant. He was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Musical Arts from the Manhattan School of Music in 2021.
Fascination for musical discovery combined with boundless curiosity, imagination, and virtuosity have established Kirill Gerstein as one of today’s most prolific and compelling performers. Gerstein is a searching artist. As a pianist, curator, educator, musical leader, and artistic collaborator, his exploration of resonant themes across a vast spectrum of repertoire - from Baroque suites and Classical concerti to contemporary creations, jazz, and cabaret – has nourished relationships with many of the world’s leading orchestras, conductors, instrumentalists, singers, composers, festivals, recording labels, and media platforms.
Gerstein’s 2025/26 season included the world première of Francisco Coll’s Piano Concerto with Sir Simon Rattle and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, followed by performances of the new concerto with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and its North American premiere with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Andris Nelsons. Gerstein also premiered Coll’s Two Waltzes Toward Civilization at Carnegie Hall, the Vienna Musikverein, and Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Saal. He toured Europe with Daniele Gatti and the Staatskapelle Dresden (Schumann Concerto), Korea with Klaus Mäkelä and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Brahms 1st Piano Concerto), and played piano duo concerts across North America with Brad Mehldau and in Japan with Mao Fujita. He performed Gershwin’s Concerto in F at Odeonsplatz in Munich and Rachmaninov’s Paganini Rhapsody at the BBC Proms. Gerstein was Focus Artist of the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich’s 2025/26 season, including performances of concertos by Adès, Ravel, Rachmaninov, and Bartók, conducted by Paavo Järvi and Thomas Adès. He also recorded Adès’ The Tempest Suite with Christian Tetzlaff for the Platoon label, released Chick Corea’s The Visitors with Gary Burton on ECM, and was honoured with a special prize for exceptional curation at the 2025 OPUS KLASSIK Awards.
Gerstein was previously Artist-in-Residence with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Spotlight Artist with the London Symphony Orchestra, Resident Artist at the Festival Aix-en-Provence, and curated a three-part “Busoni and his World” concert series at London’s Wigmore Hall. His 2026/27 season includes residencies with the Dresdner Philharmonie and the hr-Sinfonieorchester in Frankfurt.
Play-conducting is an increasingly central strand of Gerstein’s work, most notably with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, with whom he presented complete cycles of Beethoven piano concertos in Athens and at the Casals Forum in Kronberg, Germany. Their recording of the six concertos (including the early “Concerto No. 0”), celebrating the 2027 Beethoven anniversary year appears on the Platoon label. Conducting and leading from the keyboard, Gerstein has further performed with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris (Mozart, Salieri and Beethoven), the Budapest Festival Orchestra (Rhapsody in Blue), the Helsinki Philharmonic (Beethoven 5th Piano Concerto), the Czech Philharmonic (Beethoven 1st Piano Concerto), and the Wiener Philharmoniker (Mozart K.453).
Media projects, broadcasts, and digital innovation represent an integral part of Gerstein’s creativity. He has recorded for Platoon/Apple Music, myrios, Deutsche Grammophon, DECCA, Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings, with performances filmed by Unitel, Accentus Music, and EuroArts, broadcast on ORF, BBC, ARTE, and Marquee TV, and streamed on medici.tv and STAGE+. Gerstein’s “Music in Time of War”, pairing late piano works by Claude Debussy with pieces by Vardapet Komitas expanded the traditional album concept by integrating the album into a hardcover book containing a wealth of documentary images and original scholarship. In 2023, he released an acclaimed album with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Kirill Petrenko celebrating Rachmaninov’s 150th anniversary. Gerstein’s world première recording of Thomas Adès’ Concerto for Piano and Orchestra with the Boston Symphony conducted by the composer was nominated for three Grammys and received the 2020 Gramophone Award. Other noteworthy Gerstein albums include Strauss’s Enoch Arden with the Swiss actor, Bruno Ganz (Wings of Desire, The Downfall); Tchaikovsky’s complete Piano Concertos (including the 1st Concerto in the composer’s original urtext version) with Semyon Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic; The Gershwin Moment with the St. Louis Symphony and David Robertson, including special appearances from American singer-songwriter Storm Large and Gary Burton; and Mozart Four-Hand Piano Sonatas with Ferenc Rados.
A true champion of music of our time, Gerstein has commissioned and premièred dozens of new works by composers including Timo Andres, Matthew Aucoin, Francisco Coll, Chick Corea, Alexander Goehr, Oliver Knussen and Brad Mehldau. Gerstein recorded Thomas Larcher’s Piano Concerto with the Bergen Philharmonic and Ed Gardner for ECM. Since giving the world première of Thomas Adès’ Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in 2019, Gerstein has presented the work with 33 different orchestras on three continents. In February 2027, he performs alongside the composer in Munich at the world premiere of Adès’ »Abendlieder« for choir and piano four hands.
Gerstein is dedicated to learning. He is currently Professor of Piano at Berlin’s Hanns Eisler Hochschule and on the faculty of Kronberg Academy. At Kronberg Academy, his series of free online seminars featuring conversations with the 21st Century’s leading artistic minds has to date reached an audience of over 150,000 viewers. His guests have included Ai Weiwei, Brad Mehldau, Thomas Adès, Iván Fischer, Alex Ross, Matthew Aucoin, Kirill Serebrennikov, Elizabeth Wilson, Simon & Gerard McBurney, Robert Levin, Reinhard Goebel, Simon Callow, Emma Smith, Deborah Borda, Sir Antonio Pappano, and the late Kaija Saariaho. Gerstein also coaches at the Verbier Festival Academy and at IMS Prussia Cove.
Born in 1979 in Voronezh, Russia, Gerstein attended one of the country’s special music schools for gifted children and taught himself to play jazz at home by listening to his parents’ record collection. Following a chance encounter with Gary Burton in St. Petersburg when he was 14, he was invited as the youngest student to study at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. At the age of 16, Gerstein completed his undergraduate and graduate degrees at New York’s Manhattan School of Music, followed by further studies with Dmitri Bashkirov in Madrid and Ferenc Rados in Budapest. First Prize winner at the 10th Arthur Rubinstein Competition, in 2010, Gerstein received the prestigious Gilmore Artist Award, as well as an Avery Fisher Career Grant. He was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Musical Arts from the Manhattan School of Music in 2021.
