Daniil Trifonov
Piano
Hailed by the Times (London) as "without question the most astounding pianist of our age", Daniil Trifonov is acclaimed the world over for performances defined by a captivating blend of poetry, power and intellectual rigour. Born in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, in 1991, he is the son of professional musicians and began playing piano at the age of five, performing in concerts and composing. He was eight when playing with an orchestra for the first time, an occasion etched in his memory by the loss of one of his baby teeth in the middle of the concert. Inspired by the likes of Martha Argerich, Grigory Sokolov, and Radu Lupu, he used to borrow historic recordings of great pianists from his teacher, Tatiana Zelikman at the Gnessin School of Music in Moscow, and absorbed lasting lessons from the recorded work of Rachmaninov, Cortot, Horowitz, Friedman, Sofronitsky and other representatives of a golden age of piano playing.
After coming in fifth place at the 2008 International Scriabin Competition, the young pianist went on to attend the Cleveland Institute of Music to study with Sergei Babayan. It was in Cleveland that he began lessons in composition. He won the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Tel Aviv in 2011 before returning home to secure first prize, the Gold Medal, and Grand Prix at the XIV International Tchaikovsky Competition. He also won the Tchaikovsky Competition's Audience Award and the Award for the best performance of a Mozart concerto. His exclusive recording agreement with Deutsche Grammophon came a year ahead of winning the 2014 ECHO Klassik Award for Best Newcomer of the Year (Piano), following his nomination for the 2015 Grammy Awards in the Best Classical Instrumental Solo category. And in 2016, Trifonov won the international public vote for Gramophone's "Artist of the Year" award.
His inventive brilliance and individuality also extend to his growing reputation as a composer, premiering his First Piano Concerto, with its fiendishly difficult solo part, in 2014 at the Cleveland Institute of Music. His Piano Quintet (Quintetto Concertante) premiered at the Verbier Festival in 2018 and has also been performed in Berlin, New York and Tel Aviv.
