Born in Novosibirsk, Siberia, on February 25, 1989, Russian pianist Pavel Kolesnikov has conquered the classical music critics after winning several prizes. The son of scientist parents, he studied violin and piano from the age of six and attended the Novosibirsk Conservatory from 2004 to 2007, before continuing his training with Nikolai Lugansky at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. He took part in master classes with Dmitry Bashkirov, Stephen Kovacevich and Émile Naoumoff, and began performing on stage after winning several first prizes in piano competitions, including the Andorra Competition (2001), the Emil Gilels Competition in Odessa (2006) and the Delia Steinberg Competition in Madrid. In 2007, between two performances at the Verbier Festival (Switzerland), the prodigy was awarded the prize for best "Young Russian Piano Talent" in Moscow. Also third prize and audience prize at the Kissinger Sommer festival in Bad Kissinger (Germany) in 2011 and winner of the Honens International Competition in Calgary, Canada in 2012, Pavel Kolesnikov moved to London and signed with the British label Hyperion, for whom he recorded Tchaikovsky's Seasons (2014), followed by a selection of Chopin mazurkas (2016). 2018 saw the release of two new recitals, Louis Couperin - Dances from the Bauyn Manuscript and Beethoven: Moonlight Sonata & Other Piano Music, followed by Chopin: Impromptus, Waltzes & Mazurkas (2019), Bach: Goldberg Variations (2020), Hahn: Piano Music - Poèmes & Valses (2022) and Schubert - Desyatnikov (2024), the latter in duo with fellow pianist Samson Tsoy, with whom he gives two-piano recitals.
