A piano virtuoso who has been compared to the likes of Horowitz and Rubinstein, Alexander Gavrylyuk returns to Australia this June, performing stunning concerts at the Melbourne Recital Centre and Sydney’s City Recital Hall.
Gavrylyuk started learning piano at the age of seven, performed his first concerto at nine, and commenced his prize-winning career when he was just 15 years old. He has effortlessly transitioned from an acclaimed prodigy to one of the world’s most sought after pianists while still in his early 30s.
At the age of 13 Gavrylyuk moved to Australia and performed with all the main Australian orchestras, including Melbourne and Sydney Symphonies. In 2009 he made an acclaimed recording of the complete Prokofiev Concerti with Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Sydney Symphony which was recorded live at the Sydney Opera House.
Gavrylyuk’s first major prize was at the International Horovitz Competition in Kiev where he took out the top award at age 15. A year later in 2000 he again won first prize, this time at the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in Japan where he was proclaimed by critics as “the best sixteen-year-old pianist of the late twentieth century”.
In 2003 he was named a Steinway Pianist and in 2005 he took both the coveted Gold Medal as well as the award for Best Performance of a Classical Concerto at the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Masters Competition. Gavrylyuk has been an Ambassador of the Theme and Variations Young Pianist Trust since it was set up in 2011, which provides support to aspiring young Australian pianists.
From a young prize-winning prodigy, Gavrylyuk has become an international renowned soloist across Europe and America. His career highlights include concertos with the Concertgebouw, New York, Israel, and Moscow Philharmonic and Cincinnati Symphony orchestras, headlining at the Hollywood Bowl twice, and recitals in Budapest, London, Vienna, Moscow and Tokyo.
Gavrylyuk will present an impressive program of works by classic romantics, Schubert and Chopin, and Russian composers, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff and Balakirev. As recital programs go, they don’t get more testing of technique and musicality than this one!
“Immense command, pianistic colour, dynamic range, dazzling technical assuredness, conviction, musical personality and a deep understanding of the music.” – Bach Track
Romantics and Russians: Alexander Gavrylyuk
Melbourne Recital Centre, 31 Sturt Street, Southbank
Date: Monday 6 June 2016 – 7.30pm
Information and Bookings: www.melbournerecital.com.au
City Recital Hall, 2-12 Angel Place, Sydney
Date: Thursday 16 June 2016 – 7.30pm
Information and Bookings: www.cityrecitalhall.com
Image: Alexander Gavrylyuk – photo by Mika Bovan