About
“[Kozhukhin’s] dazzling performance … must have lifted Orchestra Hall a few feet off its foundation. It was hard, in fact, to imagine any pianist seizing this formidably difficult concerto in a mightier grip than this firebrand… Even in a day when keyboard virtuosos are thick on the ground, Kozhukhin is special.”
— Chicago Tribune
Winner of the First Prize in the 2010 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, Belgian pianist Denis Kozhukhin has established himself as one of the greatest pianists of his generation.
He has appeared with many of the leading international orchestras, such as the Chicago, London and San Francisco Symphony orchestras, Israel, London and Rotterdam Philharmonic orchestras, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Staatskapelle Berlin, Philadelphia Orchestra and Philharmonia Orchestra. He is also frequently invited to play at the prominent festivals of Verbier, Gstaad, Grafenegg, Dresden, Intonations, Tsinandali, Klavier Ruhr, Lanaudiere and Jerusalem, as well as the BBC Proms.
The past season has featured collaborations with a number of European orchestras, including the return at the BBC Proms with BBC Symphony, debuts with Danish National, Gulbenkian and Indianapolis Symphony orchestras, a tour with the HR-Sinfonieorchester, a residency with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra performing Rachmaninov’s four piano concertos, and concerts with the Oslo and Stockholm Philharmonic orchestras, the NDR Radiophilharmonie (Hannover) and WDR Sinfonieorchester (Cologne). He has appeared in recital at the Chicago Symphony Hall, Boulez Saal, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Musikverein, Berlin Philharmonie, Frankfurt Alte Oper, Zurich Tonhalle and Bozar.
In 23/24 Kozhukhin will celebrate the anniversaries of Ligeti, Schönberg and Lutoslawski, performing their piano concertos. Highlights of the next season include the debuts with Dallas, Dusseldorf and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras and the returns to NHK Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra (USA), Oslo and Copenhaghen Philharmonic Orchestras, Orchestre Philharmonique de Liege, Resident Orkester, Gulbenkian Orhcestra, Iceland Symphony, Barcelona Symphony and Queensland Symphony. He will perform solo recitals in Berlin, Barcelona, Prague, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Lisbon and San Francisco, and will tour with Janine Jansen appearing at Schloss-Elmau, Wigmore Hall, Zurich Tonhalle, Utrecht Musikgebouw and Megaron in Athens.
As Pentatone Artist he has released several albums, including César Franck’s Symphonic Variations with the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra under Gustavo Gimeno, Mendelssohn’s Songs without Words with Grieg’s Lyric Pieces (nominated for an Opus Klassik Award), and discs of Haydn, Brahms and Prokofiev, as well as concertos by Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Ravel and Gershwin.
Kozhukhin studied at the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid with Dmitri Bashkirov and Claudio Martinez-Mehner, and later completed his studies at the Piano Academy at Lake Como where he received advice from Fou Ts’ong, Stanislav Ioudenitch, Peter Frankl, Boris Berman, Charles Rosen and Andreas Staier, and with Kirill Gerstein in Stuttgart.
