Petr Limonov

Winner of the First Prize at the Concours international de piano Nikolai Rubinstein in 1998, the Russian-British pianist and conductor Petr Limonov frequently appears on the European scene, collaborating with Nicola Benedetti, Laura van der Heijden, Jennifer Pike, the Van Kuijk Quartet, Leonard Elschenbroich, and Liana Isakadze, among others. In a repertoire stretching from Orlando Gibbons to Arvo Pärt, he has made notable appearances at the Festival international de piano de la Roque d’Anthéron (Boris Berezovsky’s Carte Blanche, broadcast by France Musique), Wigmore Hall, iTunes Festival 2014, Cadogan Hall, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Southbank Centre, and Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory; he has also given a recital in the Duke’s Hall for HRH Prince Charles, appeared on television for BBC Proms Extra, and been heard in broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 and the TV channel Culture in Russia. In 2017, his arrangement of Auld Lang Syne (recorded with Nicola Benedetti) was performed at the BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall. He is a prolific recording artist.

Born in Moscow, he started playing the piano at the age of five. A year later he entered the prestigious Central Music School in Moscow, where he studied under Siavush Gadjiev, Valery Piasetsky, and, later, Andrei Pisarev. Supported by the Vladimir Spivakov International Charity Foundation, he was soon giving concerts throughout Europe and Russia. His studies continued under Hamish Milne and Alexander Satz at the Royal Academy of Music in London and Ramzi Yassa and Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy at the École normale de musique de Paris Alfred Cortot. In 2010 he returned to London for postgraduate studies with Dmitri Alexeev at the Royal College of Music, obtaining his Masters degree in 2012. He has taken part in master-classes given by Alfred Brendel, Stephen Hough, Vitaly Margulis, and Stephen Kovacevich. Whilst at the Royal College of Music Petr Limonov also studied conducting under Peter Stark; he made his conducting début in November 2013, directing the London International Chamber Orchestra in works by Glazunov and Rachmaninoff at Cadogan Hall.