About me
"Last night I listened to him again on YouTube – he has everything and more. What he does with his hands is technically incredible. It’s also his touch – he has tenderness and also the demonic element. I never heard anything like that.”
Martha Argerich on The Financial Times, 9 July 2011
Daniil Trifonov has won Grand Prix, First prize and a Gold Medal in the XIV International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow (2011). Daniil also won the Audience Choice Award and the Award for the Best Performance of a Mozart Concerto.
A few weeks earlier winning the Tchaikovsky Competition, Daniil Trifonov was awarded the First Prize and Gold Medal at the 13th Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition, which took place in Tel Aviv (2011). In addition, he also won the prize for the best chamber music performace, the Pnina Salzman Prize for the best performance of a Chopin piece and the Audience Favorite prize.
Daniil Trifonov – winner III prize in the 16th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw (2010), awarded also special prize of the Polish Radio for the best performance of mazurkas.
Biography
Born in Nizhniy Novgorod in 1991, Daniil Trifonov is emerging as one of the brightest new names of the next generation of pianists. During the 2010/11 season he won medals at three of the most prestigious competitions in the music world: the Chopin Competition in Warsaw (Bronze Medal), the Rubinstein Competition in Tel Aviv (First Prize) and the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow (Gold Medal).
During these performances he impressed jury members and observers such as Martha Argerich, Krystian Zimerman, Van Cliburn, Emanuel Ax, Nelson Freire, Yefim Bronfman and Valery Gergiev. Gergiev personally awarded Trifonov the 'Grand Prix' in Moscow, an additional award given to the best overall competitor in any of that Competition's categories.
Following these accolades, Trifonov has been invited to perform by many major promoters worldwide during the 2011/12 season. Highlights include debuts with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (tour), London Symphony Orchestra and Mariinsky Orchestra with Gergiev, Israel Philharmonic with Mehta, Russian National Orchestra with Pletnev, as well as collaborations with other conductors as Howard Shelly, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Pietari Inkinen, Sir Neville Marriner, Diego Matheuz, Antoni Wit. He also gives performances at the Salle Pleyel Paris, Carnegie Hall New York, Suntory Hall Tokyo, Wigmore Hall London, Musikverein Vienna; and venues across Europe, North and South America, Middle and Far East.
During the 2011/12 season Daniil has performed at International music festivals, among them International Piano Festival in the Mariinsky Theatre Concert Hall (Russia), Festival of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (Israel), Red Sea International Classical Music Festival (Israel), International Keyboard Institute & Festival (USA), BNDNES International Piano Competition Festival (Brasil), International Music Festival "Chopin and his Europe" (Poland), International Chopin Piano Festival in Duszniki Zdroj (Poland).
In next summer, the debuts in major summer festivals: Verbier, Montreux, Edinburgh, Tivoli, Kremerata Festival, Lockenhaus, Grafenegg, La Roque d'Anthéron, Klavier Festival Ruhr, in USA Blossom Festival and Chautauqua Festival. Among future confirmed engagements: New York Philharmonic Orchestra (Gilbert), Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Dutoit), San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra (Gaffigan), Philharmonia Orchestra (Maazel), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (Dutoit), Orchestre de l'Opera de Paris (Jordan), Mariinsky Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra e Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (Gergiev), Russian National Orchestra (Pletnev), BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Israel Symphony Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and recitals in Lucerne Piano Festival, London Queen Elizabeth Hall, Paris Auditorium du Louvre, Zurich Tonhalle, Washington Kennedy Center, New York Carnegie Hall (Stern auditorium), Berlin Philharmonie (Kammersaal), Amsterdaam Concertgebouw (main auditorium), Moscow Philharmonie, ecc.
Daniil Trifonov began his musical studies at the age of five. He studied at Moscow Gnesin School of Music in the class of Tatiana Zelikman (2000-2009), teacher of such artists as Konstantin Lifschitz, Alexander Kobrin and Alexei Volodin. From 2006 to 2009 he also studied composition and has continued to write piano, chamber and orchestral music since then. Since 2009, he has studied piano at the Cleveland Institute of Music in the class of Sergei Babayan.
Trifonov won many competitions and in 2008, at the age of 17, he was awarded at the 4th International Scriabin Competition (2008, Moscow) and triumphed at 3rd International Piano Competition of San Marino Republic (1st Prize and Special Prize “Republic of San Marino 2008”). He received a Guzik Foundation Career Grant in 2009, and toured the USA and Italy as a consequence of this.
Recent concerts by Daniil Trifonov have included his Japanese debut in Tokyo, recitals at the Mariinsky Concert Hall and at Moscow Easter Festival, a Chopin birthday concert in Warsaw conducted by Krzysztof Penderecki, and recitals at the Teatro La Fenice in Italy and at the Brighton Festival in the UK, Festival Pianistico di Trieste (Italy), Rheingau (Germania), Crescendo (Russia), New Names (Russia), Arpeggione (Austria), Dame Myra Hess Series (USA), Round Top (USA). He has also recently performed with the Orchestra Verdi in Milan.
His first CD was released on DECCA in 2011, featuring a selection of Chopin solo piano works. He has made different recordings for other labels and made a number of radio and television recordings in Russia, the USA and Italy:
Record Labels - DUX (Poland), The Fryderyk Chopin Institute (Poland), Classical Records (Russia), Zvuk Agency (Russia),
Television - Channel One (Russia), Kultura TV Channel (Russia), Nizhny Novgorod TV (Russia), TVP Kultura (Poland), San Marino TV,
Radio - Radio Russia, Polish Radio, BBC Radio 3(UK), WQXR (New York, USA), WFMT Radio (Chicago, USA), KUHF Radio (Houston, USA).
“The winner of this year’s Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Competition showed he deserved the prize with a performance of the first concerto that was sometimes disturbing, often brilliant and always compelling.”
Best in classical music for 2011 - The Washington Post, December 2011
“Here is a performer who already knows a huge amount not just about technique, but performance itself. Dispatching the Piano Concerto No 1, what was most noticeable about this fizzing display was showmanship without ostentatious theatrics, and a generous willingness, particularly in the balletic second movement, to let Gergiev and the by now fully fired-up London Symphony players to take the lead where the music required it. But he had the spotlight all to himself for Liszt’s Campanella, an encore delivered with delicate panache.”
The Times, September 2011
“The charismatic young Russian tore into the Tchaikovsky first piano concerto with exhilarating confidence and formidable technique.”
The Guardian, September 2011
“The way Daniil Trifonov played, you’d say he was a mature master, rather than a mere 20-year-old. Power in spades, crystalline passage-work, and a pearlised singing tone: he’s already got it all, and his encore – Liszt’s ‘La Campanella’ – had both flawless delicacy, and an engaging modesty.”
The Independent, September 2011
"Mr. Trifonov has scintillating technique and a virtuosic flair. He is also a thoughtful artist ... he can play with soft-spoken delicacy, not what you associate with competition conquerors."
Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times, July 2011
"Every note he touched was pure gold... Compelling, radiant, every gesture in the music lovingly communicated, directly and with perfect naturalness, artfully but without artifice."
Timothy Gilligan - New York Concert Review Inc., June 2011
"His performance was fundamentally reserved and inward, but with abundant colour and imaginative, subtle effects. This was playing rich in insight and intensity."
The Vancouver Sun, May 2011
"... Keep your ears open for his name. This is a major star on the horizon.”
Straight.com, May 2011
“... extremely talented and sensitive ...”
Warsaw Voice, Oct 2010