Concert pianist Andrey Gugnin is rapidly gaining international acclaim as a passionately virtuosic performer, who possesses an “extraordinarily versatile and agile technique, which serves an often inspired musical imagination” (Gramophone). One of his recent achievements is winning the prestigious 12th International German Piano Award in 2023. In 2024, Andrey Gugnin won first place at the Classic Piano International Competition in Dubai, claiming the grand prize with a performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3. In 2020, the BBC Music Magazine Awards named Gugnin the winner of the Instrumental Award for his recording Shostakovich: 24 Preludes - Piano Sonatas 1 & 2 (Hyperion). Since winning the prestigious Sydney International Piano Competition in 2016, Gugnin has gone from strength to strength in concerts and recordings which exhibit his impassioned interpretations.
In addition to winning in Sydney, Gugnin also received prizes at this illustrious competition for Best Overall Concerto, Best 19th/20th Century Concerto, Best Violin and Piano Sonata, and Best Preliminaries for his first-round recital. He won the Gold Medal and Audience Award at the XCI International Gina Bachauer Piano Competition in 2014, and second prize at the 2013 Beethoven International Piano Competition in Vienna.
Increasingly in demand as a concerto soloist, Gugnin has been invited to perform as a guest artist with notable orchestras worldwide, such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Danish Radio Orchestra, the Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra, the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, Utah Symphony, West Australian Symphony Orchestra and the Sydney Symphony, and has performed under the distinguished batons of Maestro Valery Gergiev, Jaap Van Zweden, Reinbert de Leeuw, Daniel Raiskin, Stanislav Kochanovsky and Asher Fisch. He has also collaborated in a more chamber context with the Asko Schönberg ensemble, Orchestre de Chambre de Genève, Jerusalem Camerata and Camerata Salzburg and on several occasions as the duo partner of violinist Tasmin Little.
As a recording artist, Gugnin has published a broad scope of repertoire ranging from solo piano to symphonic works. His release of Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes (Piano Classics, 2018) were commended as Editor’s Choice, and distinguished Gugnin as “one to watch” (Gramophone). Other notable recordings include his duo programme with violinist Ioana Cristina Goicea (Atoll Records, 2019), an inspired selection of solo piano suites entitled Pictures (Steinway & Sons, 2016), and a collection of piano duets with Vadim Kholodenko (Delos International, 2010). Andrey has also extensively recorded for TV and radio in Russia, The Netherlands, Croatia, Austria, Australia, Switzerland and the USA.
Currently Gugnin continues his collaboration with Hyperion Records. His latest album of complete Scriabin’s Mazurkas (2022) was awarded the Recording of the Month by Limelight Magazine.
In addition to these recordings, Gugnin’s Shostakovich Concertos (Delos International, 2007) were selected to feature on the soundtrack of Steven Speilberg’s Oscar®-winning film Bridge of Spies.
Gugnin’s expanding list of performance venues include Vienna’s Musikverein, Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, Victoria Hall in Geneva, Carnegie Hall in New York, Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake City, Sydney Opera House, the Great Hall of the Moscow State Conservatory, Mariinsky Concert Hall, the Louvre in Paris, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space and Asahi Hamarikyu Hall. Gugnin has also participated in a plethora of international festivals, including Verbier, Klavier Festival Ruhr, Mariinsky International Festival, Dubrovnik Summer Festival, the Ohrid Summer Festival and the Duszniki Chopin International Festival.
In 2020-21, as allowed by the covid pandemic, Gugnin embarked on performing numerous solo recitals at prestigious venues in Russia. Gugnin joined Tasmin Little in her farewell concert at the Southbank Centre as one of her four favourite pianists to collaborate with, which was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and for which Andrey was praised for his ‘emphatic, mesmerising playing’ (Bachtrack).
The 2022/23 season is seeing Gugnin performing solo recitals across Europe, Asia and America, including Lithuanian National Philharmonic Hall in Vilnius and Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center in Salt Lake City, Utah and Seattle recitals as well as in Thailand, Koerner Recital Hall in Vancouver, at the Cziffra Festival in Budapest, at the Bard Music Festival in New York and Leamington Festival as well as in Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
Gugnin is also showcasing a number of piano concertos in the 2022/23 season, including Ravel’s Piano concerto for the left hand with Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Rachmaninoff’s Piano concerto no. 3 with National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, Grieg Piano concerto with South Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Rachmaninoff’s Piano concerto no. 4 with Armenian State Symphony Orchestra, Schumann’s Piano concerto with Tenerife Symphony Orchestra, Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini with Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra, to name few. As a chamber musician, he is actively performing with Andrei Baranov and Alexey Zhilin in trio, having a recital with Julian Rachlin and Sarah McElravy as well as performances with Roman Simovic, Milena Simovic and Antonio Meneses.
In the season 2023/24, he will be returnin to the Bard Music Festival in New York, Husum Festival in Germany, having a recitals in Salzburg and Linz in Austria, a tour in Japan (recitals in Tokyo, Hiroshima and Takasaki and Rachmaninoff’s Piano concerto no. 2 with Nagoya Phillharmonic Orchestra), in Spain (Beethoven Piano concerto no. 5 with Orquesta Clasica Santa Cecilia in Auditorio Nacional de Musica in Madrid), recitals in Portugal, Singapore, Taiwan and Australia, where he will have a recitals in Sydney and Melbourne and will be acting as an artistic director of the OutWest Piano Fest.
