Lilya Zilberstein
Since winning First Prize in the 1987 Busoni International Piano Competition, Lilya Zilberstein has established herself as one of the finest pianists in the world. Artist-in-Residence of the Stuttgart Philharmonic in 2012/13, she will appear this coming season with the Antwerp Bohumer Symphony, Krakow Philharmonic, Naples Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra of Peru, Orchestra Regionale Toscana/Florence, Orquestra Filarmônica de Minas Gerais/Brazil, and the Zagreb Philharmonic.
In North America, Ms. Zilberstein has appeared with the symphonies of Chicago (at Ravinia), Colorado, Columbus, Dallas, Flint, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Kalamazoo, Milwaukee, Montreal, Omaha, Quebec, Oregon, and Saint Louis, as well as the Florida Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic, and the Pacific Symphony, among others. Her worldwide engagements have included the Belgrade Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, Dortmund Symphony, Dresden Staatskapelle, Düsseldorf Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, Konzerthausorchester/Berlin, Leipzig Gewandhaus, London Symphony, Mediterranean Orchestra/Palermo, Moscow Philharmonic, Miscolz Symphony/ Hungary, NHK Symphony/Tokyo, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México, Orquesta Sinfónica de Mineria/Mexico, Qatar Philharmonic, RAI Symphony/Torino, Royal Philharmonic, La Scala Orchestra, Saarbrucken Staatstheater Orchestra, Stuttgart Philharmonic, Taipei Symphony, and the Vienna Symphony. Festival engagements include Campos do Jordao/Brazil, Ireland Chamber Music, Lugano, Mondsee, Peninsula, Chautauqua, and Mostly Mozart, (both in New York and Japan). Recital engagements include venues in Alicante, Beijing, Florence, Lucca, Lyon, Padova, Paris, and Taipei, to name a few.
Ms. Zilberstein has presented numerous recitals with Martha Argerich. In addition to show-stopping performances in Norway, France, Italy, and Germany, a CD of the Brahms Sonata for Two Pianos played by Ms. Zilberstein and Ms. Argerich was released in 2003. Highlights of recent collaborations with Martha Argerich include performances in Hamburg and Bremen. Ms. Zilberstein has also collaborated on extensive tours in the United States, Canada, and Europe with Russian violinist Maxim Vengerov. Featured on the EMI recording Martha Argerich and Friends: Live from the Lugano Festival, Mr. Vengerov’s and Ms. Zilberstein’s performance of the Brahms Sonata No. 3 for Violin and Piano won a Grammy nomination for best classical album, as well as best chamber music performance. A new collaboration is developing between Ms. Zilberstein and her two sons, Daniel and Anton, both of whom have become excellent pianists. Daniel and Anton are concertizing both as a piano duo, and also with their mother playing the Mozart Triple Concerto and other six-hand works for piano.
Ms. Zilberstein has also made numerous recordings for Deutsche Grammophon; these include the Rachmaninoff Concerti Nos. 2 and 3 with Claudio Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic, the Grieg Concerto with Neeme Järvi and the Göteborg Symphony, as well as solo works of Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, Mussorgsky, Liszt, Schubert, Brahms, Debussy, Ravel, and Chopin. On her latest recording, released in 2014 on the Oehms label, Ms. Zilberstein is featured with the Gürzenich Orchestra/Cologne under Dmitri Kitajenko, playing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 3.
A native of Moscow, Lilya Zilberstein is a graduate of the Gnessin Pedagogical Institute. In addition to the Busoni Competition Gold Medal, she was the 1998 Prizewinner of the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy (other recipients include Gidon Kremer, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Esa-Pekka Salonen). Residing in Germany since 1990, Ms. Zilberstein was Guest Professor of Piano at the Hamburg Musikhochschule from 2009-2013. In October 2015, she begins a new position as Professor of Piano at the University of Music in Vienna.