In their 2023–2024 season, pianists Pavel Kolesnikovand Samson Tsoy make their duo debut at New York’s Carnegie Hall, Rotterdam’s De Doelen, Ghent’s De Bijloke, and Konzerthaus Berlin, as well as their return to Wigmore Hall. Last season, the duo appeared at the Aldeburgh Festival, Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw, and London’s Southbank Centre and Barbican—at the latter, performing Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra as part of Europe’s first Classical Pride Concert.
For the duo, space and setting are crucial elements in their music making. During the pandemic, they performed Messiaen’s Visions de l’Amen at a former multistory car park in London (presented by Bold Tendencies). This summer, they brought back concerts at Aldeburgh’s historic Jubilee Hall, where they placed the audience on stage while performing J. S. Bach and Kurtág on upright pianos placed in the stalls, and revived and relived the poignant dialogue of preludes and fugues between J. S. Bach and Shostakovich on two pianos in a way never been done before. Other presentations include Prokofiev’s Cinderella in the Muziekgebouw’s loading bay and performances in galleries across Europe. Their next project is a digital installation at Antwerp’s MoMu featuring choreography by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker to Schubert’s Fantasie.
Described as “piano magicians” (The Arts Desk), Mr. Kolesnikov and Mr. Tsoy have been living and working together since their early student days. In 2019, the duo co-founded the Ragged Music Festival, which provides a stripped-down environment for artists to explore a dialogue between music, architecture, and visual arts. Originally based in London’s Ragged School Museum, the festival has flown international with performances at the Muziekgebouw in 2023. Over the last four years, the festival has welcomed visual artists Hélène Binet, Antoni Malinowski, and Eva Vermandel, and musicians Alina Ibragimova, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Mark Padmore, Lawrence Power, Elena Stikhina, and the Doric String Quartet. The festival was nominated for a South Bank Sky Arts Award in 2021. The duo’s debut album will be released by Harmonia Mundi in June 2024.
Following his seven-concert residency at the Aldeburgh Festival and sixth appearance at the BBC Proms this summer, Pavel Kolesnikov makes his debut with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra (with Susanna Mälkki) and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra (both with Sir Mark Elder), and embarks on a recital tour to North America in the 2023–2024 season. He also returns to the Philharmonia Orchestra (with Santtu-Matias Rouvali), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (with Vasily Petrenko), Klavier-Festival Ruhr, and Wigmore Hall, where he was artist-in-residence during the 2020–2021 season. Mr. Kolesnikov won the Honens International Piano Competition in 2012 and was a BBC New Generation Artist between 2014 and 2016. He has since worked with all the BBC orchestras; London, City of Birmingham, Yomiuri Nippon, and Stavanger symphony orchestras; London and Netherlands Radio philharmonic orchestras; The Hallé; and Orquesta Sinfónica de Barcelona y Nacional de Cataluña. He has given recitals at Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Park Avenue Armory, La Roque-d’Anthéron, Konzerthaus Berlin, Piano aux Jacobins Festival, and De Singel. His discography for Hyperion includes albums of music by Reynaldo Hahn, Couperin, and Chopin.
In the 2023–2024 season, Samson Tsoy makes his debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and returns to Wigmore Hall with Tine Thing Helseth and 12 Ensemble, where he plays and directs Shostakovich’s First Piano Concerto. Recent highlights have included a solo recital at Wigmore Hall, concerts with the Philharmonia Orchestra with Gergely Madaras (performing Scriabin’s Prometheus) and Maxim Emelyanychev (performing both Brahms Piano Concertos in one evening), and a concert with Münchener Kammerorchester and Enrico Onofri. He also collaborated with acclaimed American artist Richard Serra at the Gagosian Gallery, where he performed Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps. He has performed in venues and festivals around the world including the Barbican, Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin, Théâtre de la Ville, and Salle Gaveau, and at the Aldeburgh and Verbier festivals. In 2023, he was the first classical musician to perform for the opening of the Munich Security Conference in front of the world’s most important political leaders, including Kamala Harris, Emmanuel Macron, Olaf Scholz, and Rishi Sunak. His debut album featuring solo works by Brahms will be released by Linn Records in August 2024.
