YULIANNA AVDEEVA

Yulianna Avdeeva is a pianist of passionate temperament and formidable virtuosity. Winner of First Prize at the 2010 International Chopin Piano Competition, she has established herself as one of today’s most compelling pianists, admired for ‘consistently leading the field in terms of sheer passion and musical mastery, not to mention technical assurance,’ and for performances that are ‘spontaneous and volatile,’ ‘full of depth and colour’ (The Telegraph).

The Guardian praised her for combining power, conviction and sensitivity, captivating audiences worldwide. ‘Her sense of rhythm springs from intelligent feeling and clarity of thought,’ wrote The Guardian, ‘and her ability to reveal Chopin’s inner voices puts many to shame.’

As a favourite with European audiences, Yulianna is regular guest at leading concert halls, including the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Rudolfinum in Prague, Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Saal, the Vienna Konzerthaus and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie. She has recently given her recital debuts at the Salzburg and Gstaad Festivals, and at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

Highlights of Yulianna’s 2025–26 season included a recital tour of Korea and China and appearances at the Chopin and His Europe Festival in Warsaw and recital debuts at Vienna’s Musikverein, Cologne Philharmonie, the Berlin Philharmonie, La Jolla Music Society, the Philip Lorenz International Keyboard Concerts, DACAMERA in Houston, the Tannay Festival in Switzerland, the Società del Quartetto di Milano and De Bijloke Music Centre in Belgium.  Avdeeva returns to Madrid’s Círculo de Bellas Artes to perform Shostakovich’s complete 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87, a work she will also present at the Chopin and His Europe Festival, and to the Rudolf Firkušný Piano Festival in Prague, where the musician gives a solo recital featuring excerpts from Op. 87 at the Rudolfinum.

Recent concerto engagements include Beethoven with David Danzmayr and the Seattle Symphony, Brahms with Mark Wigglesworth and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and a return to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra for Prokofiev under Rafael Payare. Adveeva has also performed Rachmaninov with Santtu-Matias Rouvali and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Chopin with Simone Young and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Bartók with Omer Meir and the WDR Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra, Chopin with Dinis Sousa and the Dresden Philharmonic, Beethoven with Victor Julien-Laferrière and the Orchestre Consuelo at the La Chaise-Dieu Festival, and Chopin with Tomàs Grau and the Franz Schubert Philharmonia. Following a recent appearance at the Gewandhaus Shostakovich Festival, the pianist embarks this season on a European tour performing Rachmaninov with Andris Nelsons and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Chamber music plans include a tour with the Belcea Quartet and performances in Vienna, Hamburg, Berlin and Madrid.

In the 2024–25 season, Yulianna returned to Carnegie Hall following her sold-out debut there in 2023, presenting a programme of Chopin and Liszt that featured Liszt’s Piano Sonata in B minor—repertoire she also toured across Spain, Germany, the United States, France, Austria and Italy. Highlights also included Tchaikovsky with the New York Philharmonic at the Bravo! Vail Music Festival, her debut with the Celebrity Series of Boston performing Beethoven’s ‘Hammerklavier’ Sonata alongside Liszt, a recital at the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, and multiple appearances at the Seattle Chamber Music Society Festival with violinist James Ehnes.

In collaboration with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Gewandhaus Orchestra launched a festival marking the 50th anniversary of Shostakovich’s death, during which Yulianna performed the complete Op. 87 in spring 2025. She has since taken the cycle to major venues including the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, the Palau de la Música in Barcelona, the Saitama Arts Center in Tokyo, the Lanaudière Festival in Quebec, the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, as well as Ostrava (Czech Republic) and Seon (Switzerland), among others.

During the 2023–24 season, she made her Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut performing Chopin, and appeared performing Beethoven with the WDR Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Pacific Symphony, Mozart with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Prokofiev with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Chopin with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, Bernstein with the RAI Orchestra, and Grieg with the Galicia Symphony Orchestra. She also performed at the Pierre Boulez Saal and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie.

Yulianna has also collaborated with leading orchestras worldwide, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR), WDR Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, Basel Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, KBS Symphony Orchestra and Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra.

A critically acclaimed recording artist, Yulianna has recently released three albums on PENTATONE: Resilience (2023), with works by Weinberg, Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Szpilman; Chopin: Voyage (2024), dedicated to Chopin’s late works; and a complete recording of Shostakovich’s Op. 87 (2025). Reviewing the latter, Boston’s The Arts Fuse wrote: ‘It is remarkable that, in Avdeeva’s hands, the music’s searing expressivity is communicated with such ease and with the directness of something far more familiar (for example, The Well-Tempered Clavier). It is a testament to that rare synthesis: the total identification of an artist with her repertoire.’

Her discography offers a compelling portrait of her artistry, from the Chopin concertos recorded with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century and Frans Brüggen (2013), to three solo albums spanning Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, Liszt and Prokofiev (2014, 2016, 2017), and her collaboration with Gidon Kremer on Weinberg’s chamber music (2017, 2019). This body of work is crowned by a solo recording for Deutsche Grammophon (2015), issued as part of a landmark 11-disc collection dedicated to the Chopin Competition’s gold medallists from 1927 to 2010.

Regarding her online initiatives, in 2025 Yulianna launched #AvdeevaShostakovichProject, exploring all 24 Preludes and Fugues through analysis and performance. It was developed alongside #YuliannasMusicalDialogues, an open forum inviting her followers and piano enthusiasts to engage with music. Through regular informal posts on social media, she encourages her audience to select a composer of the month, sparking online conversations about each composer’s life and works, with a focus on notable pieces. In a series of short instructional videos, she unpacks the art of interpretation, addressing phrasing, technique and style. Her earlier online educational project, #AvdeevaBachProject, launched during the COVID-19 lockdown, reached over half a million views worldwide. More information can be found at avdeevapiano.com.