A pianist of fiery temperament and virtuosity, Yulianna Avdeeva is the First Prize winner of the 2010 International Chopin Piano Competition, which launched her to international fame for “consistently [leading] the field, in terms of sheer passion and musicianship, not to mention technical security,” in performances that were “full of depth and colour” (The Telegraph). In 2022 the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette praised Avdeeva a “one-woman powerhouse of epic stature.”
After her sold-out recital debut at Carnegie Hall in early 2023, Avdeeva returns to Carnegie in October 2024 with a program of Chopin and Liszt, including the latter’s famous Piano Sonata in B Minor. She will also play that program on stages in Spain, Germany, France, Austria, Italy, and Seattle. In Boston she will perform Liszt and Beethoven’s Hammerklavier sonata; at Festival Lanaudiere she will perform Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87, and, at the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Shostakovich and Chopin.
In spring 2025, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the death of Dmitri Shostakovich, Avdeeva performs the composer’s 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87, at Gewandhaus, in Leipzig, part of a Shostakovich festival with The Gewandhaus Orchestra in partnership with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She will also play the cycle at Pierre Boulez Hall in Berlin, Palau de la Música in Barcelona and Madrid, in Ostrava, Czech Republic; and in Seon, Switzerland.
Chamber music highlights of Avdeeva’s 2024-25 season include Alfred Schnittke’s Quintet, with members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, at the Salzburg Festival; Schnittke’s Concerto for Piano and Strings, and Concerto Grosso No. 6, with Gidon Kremer and Kremerata Baltica; and a trio tour with Julia Fischer and Daniel Müller-Schott at the Rheingau Music Festival, Kissinger Sommer, and London’s Wigmore Hall.
Avdeeva’s recent and upcoming orchestral highlights include Chopin’s Piano Concerto No.1 with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century in Kyoto, Osaka, Tokyo, and Fukuoka, and with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra; Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 with the Pacific Symphony; Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with The Florida Orchestra, and with Tokyo’s NHK Orchestra; Bernstein The Age of Anxiety with RAI Italian Radio Orchestra, and with the Minnesota Orchestra, Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra; and Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia.
A recording artist, Avdeeva released the album Resilience in 2023, featuring music by Szpilman, Weinberg, Shostakovich, and Prokofiev — composers who endured in times of great political instability. Avdeeva’s latest album, Voyage, featuring the late works of Chopin, will be released in September 2024; a recording of Shostakovich’s Op. 87 follows in spring 2025 (all three on Pentatone). Her recordings of the Chopin concertos with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century and Frans Brüggen (2013), her three solo albums featuring works by Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, and Prokofiev (2014, 2016, 2017), and her collaboration with Gidon Kremer in Weinberg’s chamber music (2017 and 2019), are a formidable record of her art, topped off by a Deutsche Grammophon (2019) solo recording as part of a milestone collection dedicated to Chopin Competition Gold Medalists.
#YuliannasMusicalDialogues is an engaging online initiative that provides an open space for her followers and piano aficionados. Through regular informal social media posts, she opens up an online dialogue about a selected composer’s life and work, paying special attention to details of notable pieces, deconstructing the art of performance.
Edvard Grieg: Cow Call from 19 Norwegian Folk Tunes, op.66 no.1
Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)
Opening speech
Felix Mendelssohn: Piano Trio no.1 in D minor, op.49
Johan Dalene (violin), Julia Hagen (cello), Yulianna Avdeeva (piano)
Interval
Geirr Tveitt: Three Songs
Eirik Grøtvedt (tenor), Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)
Knut Vaage: Bumerang
Opus13 (String Quartet)
Edvard Grieg: Songs, op.33 no.6-12
Eirik Grøtvedt (tenor), Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)
"Leipzig"
Felix Mendelssohn: Three Duets
Mari Eriksmoen (soprano), Eirik Grøtvedt (tenor), James Baillieu (piano)
Edvard Grieg: Six Songs, op.4
Mari Eriksmoen (soprano), Eirik Grøtvedt (tenor), James Baillieu (piano)
Niels Gade: Fantasy Piece for Clarinet and Piano, op.43 no.3
Björn Nyman (clarinet), James Baillieu (piano)
Robert Schumann: Violin Sonata no.1 in A minor, op.105
Johan Dalene (violin), Yulianna Avdeeva (piano)
Interval
Felix Mendelssohn: String Quartet no.2 in A minor, op.13
Opus13 (String Quartet)
Edvard Grieg: Intermezzo for cello og piano
Julia Hagen (cello), James Baillieu (piano)
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Six Studies in English Folk Song
Timothy Ridout (viola), James Baillieu (piano)
Edvard Grieg: From Seven Childen’s Songs, op.61
Mari Eriksmoen (soprano), Knut Christian Jansson (piano)
Robert Schumann: Märchenbilder, op.113
Timothy Ridout (viola), Yulianna Avdeeva (piano)
Interval
Geirr Tveitt: Piano Sonata No.29, "Sonata etere", op.129
Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)
«Grieg in Hardanger 1»
Letters from Edvard and Nina Grieg
Ragnhild Gudbrandsen
Edvard Grieg: Andantino serioso, op.28 no.4
Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)
Edvard Grieg: Andante con moto, EG116
Johan Dalene (violin), Julia Hagen (cello), Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)
Edvard Grieg: Beside the Stream, op.33 no.5
Eirik Grøtvedt (tenor), James Baillieu (piano)
Edvard Grieg: Norwegian Dances, op.35 no.2-3
Yulianna Avdeeva, James Baillieu (piano)
Edvard Grieg: Sarabande and Rigaudon from Holberg’s Suite, op.40
Yulianna Avdeeva (piano)
«Grieg in Hardanger 1»
Letters from Edvard and Nina Grieg
Ragnhild Gudbrandsen
Edvard Grieg: Andantino serioso, op.28 no.4
Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)
Edvard Grieg: Andante con moto, EG116
Johan Dalene (violin), Julia Hagen (cello), Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)
Edvard Grieg: Beside the Stream, op.33 no.5
Eirik Grøtvedt (tenor), James Baillieu (piano)
Edvard Grieg: Norwegian Dances, op.35 no.2-3
Yulianna Avdeeva, James Baillieu (piano)
Edvard Grieg: Sarabande and Rigaudon from Holberg’s Suite, op.40
Yulianna Avdeeva (piano)
«Grieg in Hardanger 1»
Letters from Edvard and Nina Grieg
Ragnhild Gudbrandsen
Edvard Grieg: Andantino serioso, op.28 no.4
Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)
Edvard Grieg: Andante con moto, EG116
Johan Dalene (violin), Julia Hagen (cello), Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)
Edvard Grieg: Beside the Stream, op.33 no.5
Eirik Grøtvedt (tenor), James Baillieu (piano)
Edvard Grieg: Norwegian Dances, op.35 no.2-3
Yulianna Avdeeva, James Baillieu (piano)
Edvard Grieg: Sarabande and Rigaudon from Holberg’s Suite, op.40
Yulianna Avdeeva (piano)
«Ravel 150!»
Claude Debussy: Syrinx
Cecilie Løken (flute)
Maurice Ravel: Introduction and Allegro
Cecilie Løken (flute), Björn Nyman (clarinet), Opus13 (String Quartet), Ida Aubert Bang (harp)
Rebecca Clarke: Viola Sonata
Timothy Ridout (viola), James Baillieu (piano)
Maurice Ravel: 3 Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé, M.64
Mari Eriksmoen (soprano), Edvard Erdal (violin), Albin Uusijärvi (viola), Daniel Thorell (cello), Cecilie Løken, Sigrid Holmstrand (flutes), Björn Nyman, Marita Elise Holme (clarinets), Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)
Interval
Maurice Ravel: Piano Trio
Johan Dalene (violin), Julia Hagen (cello), Yulianna Avdeeva (piano)
Valentin Silvestrov: Bagatelle no.2
Yulianna Avdeeva (piano)
Marin Marais: Pièces de viole
André Lislevand (viola da gamba), Jadran Duncumb (theorbo)
Jean-Marie Leclair: From Deuxième récréation de musique, op.8 - 6. Chaconne
«Ensemble C4»
Knut Vaage: “Hauste inn” (Autumn) (World première) text: Terje Tørrisplass
Daniel Sæther (countertenor), “Ensemble C4”
Dmitri Shostakovich: Viola Sonata, op.147
Timothy Ridout (viola), Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)
“Grand Finale in Three Parts”
Alesandro Scarlatti: Sinfonia di concerto grosso no.8 in G major
«Ensemble C4»
Edvard Grieg: From Six Romances, op.39
Mari Eriksmoen (soprano), James Baillieu (piano)
Henri Duparc: Three Songs
Eirik Grøtvedt (tenor), Yulianna Avdeeva (piano)
Geirr Tveitt: 3 Folk Tunes from Hardanger
Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)
Knut Vaage: “kom lindereid kom” (Summer) (World première) text: Erlend O. Nødtvedt
Daniel Sæther (countertenor), “Ensemble C4”
Interval
Felix Mendelssohn: String Octet in E-flat Major, op.20
Opus13 (String Quartet), Johan Dalene, Oda Holt Günther (violins), Timothy Ridout (viola), Julia Hagen (cello)
Interval
Antonio Vivaldi: Trio Sonata no.12 in D minor, RV 63 “Follia Variations”
«Ensemble C4»
Louis Andriessen: Workers Union
Festival musicians
