Vassily Primakov, piano

In recent years, Vassily Primakov has been hailed as a pianist of world class importance. Gramophone wrote that “Primakov’s empathy with Chopin’s spirit could hardly be more complete,” and the American Record Guide stated: “Since Gilels, how many pianists have the right touch? In Chopin, no one currently playing sounds as good as this! This is a great Chopin pianist.”

Vassily entered Moscow’s Central Special Music School at the age of 11, and at 17 came to New York to pursue studies at the Juilliard School. At Juilliard he won the William Petschek Piano Recital Award, which led to his debut recital at Alice Tully Hall. He also won both the Silver Medal and the Audience Prize in the 2002 Gina Bachauer International Artists Piano Competition, and later that year he won First Prize in the 2002 Young Concert Artists (YCA) International Auditions. In 2007 he was named the Classical Recording Foundation’s “Young Artist of the Year.” In 2009, his Chopin Mazurkas recording was named “Best of the Year” by National Public Radio.

Vassily has released numerous recordings for Bridge Records that include works by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Chopin, Dvorak, Debussy, Tchaikovsky, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, among others. In 2011, he and his duo-piano partner, Natalia Lavrova, established a new record company, L.P. Classics, Inc. which has released a number of additional recordings.

In the fall of 2021, Vassily collaborated with two other pianists, Natalia Lavrova and Oxana Mikhailoff, to perform a “piano extravaganza” of two piano works based on transcriptions from opera and ballet, at the Sparkill Concert Series in Sparkill, NY. This performance is also available on a CD.

In addition to Vassily’s full teaching schedule and his performance career, he is, in partnership with Oxana Mikhailoff, co-director of the Sparkill Concert Series in Sparkill, NY. Vassily is also is a Yamaha Artist.