Maxim Philippov - Piano

With performances distinguished by deft musicianship and a natural elegance, Moscow-born Maxim Philippov was named silver medalist at the Eleventh Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in June 2001. He was awarded two years of concert engagements and career management as well as a compact disc recording of his award-winning performances for the harmonia mundi label.

Mr. Philippov has performed recitals throughout his native Russia, Europe, and North America, highlighted by appearances at important concert venues such as the Gasteig in Munich, Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, the Salle Cortot in Paris, the Tonhalle in Zurich, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

He has collaborated with the Calgary Philharmonic, the City of Birmingham Symphony, the Edinburgh Symphony, the Hamburg Symphony, the Moscow Philharmonic, and the Santo Domingo Symphony Orchestras. In the United States, Mr. Philippov has performed with the Amarillo, Delaware, Eugene, Jacksonville, New Haven, Pacific, Tacoma, and Wyoming Symphony Orchestras, among others.

He has appeared in recital in such cities as Burlington, Dallas, Little Rock, New Orleans, San Antonio, San Jose, Savannah, and Washington, D.C. Also the recipient of a Steven De Groote Memorial Award for the Best Performance of Chamber Music during the semifinal round of the Cliburn Competition, he has collaborated with the American String Quartet and joined the Takacs Quartet at the University of California in Berkeley and the University of Connecticut in Storrs last season. Highlights of the 2003-2004 season include performances with the Reno Philharmonic and Hartford Symphony Orchestras, as well as recitals at Bass Hall in Fort Worth, Brigham Young University in Idaho, the Scottsdale Center for the Arts in Arizona, and at the University of Louisville in Kentucky. He will perform a New York recital as part of Carnegie’s inaugural season at Zankel Hall on April 28, 2004. Emerging as one of today's most engaging interpreters of Rachmaninoff, Mr. Philippov has recorded two discs devoted to the solo works of this composer.

The harmonia mundi disc featuring his Cliburn Competition performance of several Rachmaninoff Preludes, Op. 32 was released to much critical acclaim. He was featured in Playing on the Edge, the Peabody Award-winning documentary on the Eleventh Van Cliburn International Piano Competition which premiered on PBS stations across the United States beginning in the fall of 2001, and also appeared in the PBS Concerto series which showcases his Final Round Cliburn Competition performances with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and Maestro James Conlon.

He began studying the piano at the age of five and made his public debut when he was eight. A laureate of several major international piano competitions, including the Leeds, Rachmaninoff, Rubinstein, and Tchaikovsky Competitions, he won first prize at the 1996 Esther Honens Calgary International Piano Competition. A former pupil of Vera Gornostaeva, Mr. Philippov now resides in Moscow, where he is assistant professor of piano at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory.