Andrei Gavrilov

Russian pianist Andrei Gavrilov's mother was a concert pianist and his father was an artist. He started piano lessons with his mother at home before enrolling into Moscow Central Music School in 1961. He went on to study at the Moscow Conservatoire, winning the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1974 after having only been a student there for one term. He made his professional concert debut at the Salzburg Music Festival in 1974 as a stand-in for Sviatoslav Richter who was unable to perform. He came to the attention of several renowned conductors including Herbert von Karajan, who invited him in 1979 to record Rachmaninov's four piano concertos but Gavrilov was unable to travel as his passport was revoked as a result of speaking out against the Soviet regime. This led to him being placed under house arrest and he was unable to perform for five years.

In 1984, Mikhail Gorbachev intervened for Gavrilov and he was issued with papers which permitted him to travel. Exclusively signed to EMI, he made up for lost time with concert appearances in Carnegie Hall in 1985 followed by concerts in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, London, Vienna, Paris, Berlin and Tokyo with major orchestras and conductors including Claudio Abbado, Bernard Haitink, Simon Rattle and Neville Mariner. His performances were critically acclaimed and he was at the height of his career, making several recordings for EMI including an outstanding rendition of Chopin's etudes.

In 1991, he signed for Deutsche Grammophon and made a series of recordings of works by Grieg, Bach, Prokofiev and Schubert. His rendition of Bach's 'Goldberg Variations' recorded in 1992 was critically acclaimed as were his recordings of Bach's 'French Suites' and Grieg's 'Lyric Pieces' (1993). After this, he took a break from recording and performing, suffering with symptoms of anxiety and depression. In 1998 he was included in the 'Great Pianists of the Twentieth Century' series by the Philips label.

He returned to the concert hall in 2001 with a concert at the Moscow Conservatoire playing four piano concertos in one evening. He returned to America in 2008 and commenced a world tour the following year. In 2013 he finished work on his autobiography which was published in Russian, German and English and included a new recording of Chopin's 'Nocturnes'. He began a series of concerts where he performed various piano concertos whilst also conducting from the piano, which had been an ambition of his. He began these concerts in Belgrade in 2013, where he performed three concertos in one evening whilst conducting from the piano. He has also performed concerts in this way in America, Romania, Hungary, Italy and South Korea.