Armchair Concerts.
Live broadcasts
from Tchaikovsky Concert Hall

Winner of the 11th International Tchaikovsky Competition, Denis Matsuev is fast-rising star on the international concert stage. Matsuev has performed in many of the World’s greatest halls, including New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, Salle Gaveau in Paris, Mozarteum in Salzburg, Musikhalle in Hamburg, Great Hall of Conservatoire in Moscow, Great Hall of the Philharmonie in St. Petersburg and Tokyo’s Metropolitan Opera.

Denis Matsuev was born into a family of musicians in the city of Irkutsk, Siberia in 1975. He began taking piano lessons at the age of four, and made his debut with Haydn’s Piano Concerto when he was nine. In 1991, Matsuev moved to Moscow to continue his professional training at the Moscow Central Specialized Music School, where he became a laureate of the International Charity Foundation “New Names” program and received the opportunity to appear in over 400 cities in Russia and 42 countries abroad. A graduate of the Moscow Conservatory, Mr. Matsuev first studied with professor Alexei Naseddkin and later with professor Sergey Dorensky. In Prof. Dorensky’s opinion, Denis Matsuev is “one of his brightest and most gifted students, remarkable for his perfect technique and artistry.” Though the pianist’s repertoire is comprehensive, he is at his best with the romantics (Liszt, Schumann, Chopin). He is fond of classical jazz, and from time to time both his own compositions and improvisations on popular jazz themes are included in his concert programs.

Mr. Matsuev is a laureate of the International Piano Competition in Johannesburg, South Africa (1994 Grand Prix) and the 1998 International Piano Competition in Paris, and First Prize winner of the 1998 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. He has appeared with the most prestigious Russian orchestras, including the Russian National Orchestra under the direction of Vladimir Spivakov and Mikhail Pletnev, the Russian Symphony Orchestra under Vladimir Fedoseyev, and the Moscow Philharmonic under the direction of Mark Ermler. Mr. Matsuev has also appeared with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Osaka Century Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, Utah Symphony, Budapest Philharmonic, Warsaw National Orchestra, and Iceland Symhony Orchestra.

Yaroslav Timofeev is a musicologist, lecturer, music critic, presenter, and concert host. Having graduated from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, he has been a prize-winner of international piano, composing and church bellringing competitions. In 2014, Yaroslav defended his Ph. D. thesis titled Stravinsky and “Khovanshina” in Sergei Diaghilev’s version: an attempt of historical research and source study. In 2015, he got the 1st degree Resonance award for Russian Young Musical Critics at the Diaghilev Festival. 

Since 2011, Yaroslav Timofeev has been a music reviewer authoring over 750 articles for leading Russian media, such as Izvestia, Kommersant, Russia Beyond the Headlines newspapers; The New Times, Music Academy, Musical Life magazines; Colta.ru portal; and Arzamas project, among others. He has also been a script-writer and editor of the Absolute Pitch and Artificial selection shows on the Kultura TV channel. In 2014–2015, he was an editor with the Culture Division of Izvestia newspaper. In 2009–2015, he headed the Musicology Section of MolOt (Junior Department of the Russian Composers Union). Since 2018, he has been the Chief Editor with the Musical Academy Magazine.

Yaroslav Timofeev has been a Jury member and an Expert Council member of the Golden Mask National Theatre Award. As a musical consultant, he was involved in the staging of the Opening Ceremony of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. He has been working at the Moscow Philharmonic Society since 2010, presenting concerts of the project ‘Mom, I'm a Melomaniac’ since the 2017/18 season and being a permanent co-author and co-host of the ‘Music Language’ project since 2018/19. He also gives pre-concert lectures in Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov Concert Halls. In spring 2020, he hosted several online concerts of the Armchair Concerts series. 

Yaroslav has been a pianist with OQJAV indie group since 2017. As part of the group, he was awarded the Mikael Tariverdiev Prize for the Best Film Soundtrack at the Kinotavr festival (2020).