Nikolai Lugansky

Biography

Described by Gramophone as “the most trailblazing and meteoric performer of all” Nikolai Lugansky is a pianist of extraordinary depth and versatility.

He regularly works with top level conductors such as Osmo Vänskä, Yuri Temirkanov, Mikhail Pletnev, Charles Dutoit, Gianandrea Noseda and Vladimir Jurowski. Concerto highlights for the 2017/18 season include engagements with the London and Baltimore symphony orchestras, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Junge Deutsche Philharmonie and the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra. He will also take part in European tours with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra under Sakari Oramo, and the Russian National Orchestra.

A regular recitalist the world over, upcoming performances include London’s Wigmore Hall, Paris’ Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, New York’s 92^nd Street Y, Aix-en-Provence, Lisbon, Tokyo, Rio de Janiero and the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire. Lugansky regularly appears at some of the world's most distinguished festivals, including La Roque d’Anthéron, and the Verbier, Tanglewood and Ravinia festivals. His chamber music collaborators include Vadim Repin, Alexander Kniazev, Mischa Maisky and Leonidas Kavakos.

Nikolai Lugansky has won a number of awards for his many recordings. His recital CD featuring Rachmaninov's Piano Sonatas won the Diapason d’Or and an ECHO Klassik Award, whilst his recording of concertos by Grieg and Prokofiev with Kent Nagano and the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, was a Gramophone Editor’s Choice. His earlier recordings have also won a number of awards, including a Diapason d'Or, BBC Music Magazine Award and ECHO Klassik prize. Lugansky’s most recent disc of Tchaikovsky’s Grande Sonata and The Seasons, released in June 2017 met with enthusiastic reviews and was described as ‘insightful and mature’ (The Guardian)

Lugansky is Artistic Director of the Tambov Rachmaninov Festival and is also a supporter of, and regular performer at, the Rachmaninov Estate and Museum of Ivanovka.

Nikolai Lugansky studied at Moscow’s Central Music School and the Moscow Conservatoire where his teachers included Tatiana Kestner, Tatiana Nikolayeva and Sergei Dorensky. He was awarded the honour of People’s Artist of Russia in April 2013.