VADYM KHOLODENKO

Admired for his formidable virtuosity, exceptionally broad repertoire and rare interpretative insight that ascends to the realms of poetry, Vadym Kholodenko is widely regarded as one of the outstanding pianists, the likes of which the world has rarely seen since the great pianists of the Golden Age.

Since winning the Gold Medal at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, his remarkable talent for the piano and exceptional artistry has earned him collaborations with the world’s leading orchestras and in its foremost concert halls.

Recent and forthcoming concerto engagements include performances with outstanding orchestras from North America, like the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and The Philadelphia Orchestra; from Europe, like the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala, London Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra; from Asia-Pacific, like the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. In recent seasons, he served as Artist-in-Residence with both the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra (Texas, USA) and the SWR Symphonieorchester (Stuttgart, Germany). In 2025, he made his debut at the BBC Proms in London.

Kholodenko has forged close musical partnerships with many of today’s leading conductors, including Karina Canellakis, Myung-Whun Chung, Christoph Eschenbach, Iván Fischer, Marie Jacquot, Cristian Măcelaru, Susanna Mälkki, Gemma New, Sir Antonio Pappano, Dima Slobodeniouk, Thomas Søndergård, Krzysztof Urbański, and Kazuki Yamada, among many others.

In recital, he appears at many of the world’s leading concert halls, from London, Paris and Vienna to Boston, Chicago and New York, where his playing has been praised for its “iron-clad technique, capable of moments of crystalline delicacy” (The Guardian). An equally committed chamber musician, he regularly collaborates with artists including Clara Jumi-Kang, Anastasia Kobekina, Vadim Repin, and the Belcea and Jerusalem Quartets. He has also developed a longstanding artistic partnership with violinist Alena Baeva, with whom he continues to perform in major musical centres including Florence, London and Paris.

Kholodenko possesses an exceptionally ability to absorb and retain an extraordinarily wide repertoire, his knowledge and command of piano literature is unrivalled. He holds a vast active repertoire from J.S. Bach, Balakirev, Beethoven, Chaplygin, Kurbatov, Liszt, Medtner, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, Rzewski, Schubert, Scriabin, Siloti, Stravinsky, and Tchaikovsky, among others. His recordings for Harmonia Mundi include Grieg’s Piano Concerto, Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No. 2, and the complete cycle of Prokofiev’s piano concertos.

His recordings have been acclaimed by the international press and described as “truly outstanding” (Gramophone). They have received distinctions including BBC Music Magazine’s Editor’s Choice and the prestigious Diapason d’Or de l’année. His 2022 recording for Quartz Music, pairing Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations with Rzewski’s The People United Will Never Be Defeated!, received widespread critical acclaim, praised as “carefully contoured and impactful” (BBC Music Magazine) and as “playing that pulls no punches: Kholodenko is in the elite of classical pianists” (The Critic).

Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, Kholodenko began piano lessons at the age of six and started touring internationally by thirteen. He studied at the Kyiv Lysenko State Music Lyceum before continuing his education at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatoire, where he worked with renowned pedagogues like Natalia Gridneva, Borys Fedorov, and Vera Gornostaeva. Before his Van Cliburn triumph, he won First Prize at the Sendai International Piano Competition (2010) and the Schubert International Piano Competition (2011). He is now based in Luxembourg.