Biography

Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov—winner of Gramophone’s 2016 Artist of the Year award and the 2018 Grammy award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo—has made an ascent in the world of classical music as a solo artist, champion of the concerto repertory, collaborator at the keyboard in chamber music and song, and as a composer.

Born in Nizhny Novgorod in 1991, Mr. Trifonov began his musical training at the age of five, and went on to attend Moscow’s Gnessin School of Music as a student of Tatiana Zelikman, before pursuing piano studies with Sergei Babayan at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He has also studied composition, and continues to write for piano, chamber ensemble, and orchestra. In the 2010-11 season, Mr. Trifonov won medals at Warsaw’s Chopin Competition, Tel Aviv’s Rubinstein Competition, and Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Competition—three of the music world’s most prestigious competitions. In 2013 he was also awarded Italy’s Franco Abbiati Prize for Best Instrumental Soloist.

Focusing on Chopin in the 2017-18 season, Mr. Trifonov released Chopin: Evocations, his fourth album as an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist, which includes both works by Chopin and twentieth-century composers influenced by the Polish master, such as Barber, Mompou, and others. He gives more than twenty recitals on the same theme across the US, Europe, and Asia this season. Mr. Trifonov also performs and curates a seven-concert, season-long Perspectives series at Carnegie Hall. This residency includes a solo recital and two all-Chopin programs with cellist Gautier Capuçon and Kremerata Baltica; collaborations with baritone Matthias Goerne and Sergei Babayan; a performance of his own piano concerto with the Mariinsky Orchestra; and a solo recital in Zankel Hall. Mr. Trifonov curates similar series this season at the Vienna Konzerthaus and at the San Francisco Symphony, where he is featured in a solo recital, a duo recital with Sergei Babayan, and an appearance performing Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto, led by Michael Tilson Thomas. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in 2014 as a Shenson Young Artist.

Additional US engagements include Prokofiev with the Cleveland Orchestra led by Michael Tilson Thomas, Scriabin’s Piano Concerto with the Seattle Symphony, a performance of his own piano concerto with the Detroit Symphony, and Rachmaninoff performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

(June 2018)