Nikolai Lugansky

People’s Artist of Russia (2013)

Nikolai Lugansky was born in Moscow in 1972. He began to study the piano at the age of five. In 1995 he graduated from the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory (classes of Tatiana Nikolayeva and Sergei Dorensky), and in 1997 he undertook an assistant traineeship at the conservatory (under Sergei Dorensky).

Prize-winner at the All-Union Competition of Students of Middle Schools of Music (Tbilisi, 1988; 1^st prize), the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition (Leipzig, 1988; 2^nd prize and Silver Medal), the All-Union Sergei Rachmaninoff Piano Competition (Moscow, 1990; 2^nd prize) and the International Tchaikovsky Competition (Moscow, 1994; 2^nd prize, Audience Award and special prize).

Has appeared with such conductors as Yevgeny Svetlanov, Yuri Temirkanov, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Mikhail Pletnev, Vladimir Spivakov, Vladimir Jurowski, Vassily Sinaisky, Saulius Sondeckis, Yuri Simonov, Alexander Vedernikov, Kirill Petrenko, Kurt Masur, Charles Dutoit, Leonard Slatkin, Kent Nagano, Riccardo Chailly, Marek Janowski, Andrey Boreyko, Gianandrea Noseda, Sakari Oramo and Esa-Pekka Salonen. Nikolai Lugansky has been partnered in chamber music performances with the pianists Vadim Rudenko and Yuja Wang, the violinists Vadim Repin, Leonidas Kavakos, Isabelle Faust and Sergei Krylov, the cellists Alexander Knyazev, Alexander Rudin and Mischa Maisky, clarinettist Yevgeny Petrov and soprano Anna Netrebko. Gives concerts at the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, the Grand Hall of the St Petersburg Philharmonia, the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall and the Zaryadye Hall in Moscow, the Tonhalle Zürich, the Théâtre des Champs-Ésylées in Paris, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Konzerthaus and the Musikverein in Vienna, the Mozarteum Salzburg, the Berliner Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall in New York, Wigmore Hall and the Royal Albert Hall in London and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall among other venues.

Regularly appears at festivals in Aspen, La Roque-d’Anthéron, Colmar, Montpellier, Nantes, Verbier, Gstaad, the Ruhr, Schleswig-Holstein, Tanglewood and the Ravinia festival (Highland Park, USA).

Since 1998 he has taught (currently as a professor) at the Piano Division at the Moscow Conservatory. Artistic Director of the Rachmaninoff International Music Festival (Tambov).

Nikolai Lugansky’s discography includes recordings released by Melodiya, Erato Disques, Warner Classics, Deutsche Grammophon, naïve and harmonia mundi among other companies. His albums have been awarded numerous international prizes, among them the Terence Judd Award, the Diapason d’Or (on three occasions), the ECHO KLASSIK award (on three occasions), the Choc du Monde de la musique, the BBC Music Magazine Award and the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik.

Honorary member of the Russian Academy of Arts. Member of the Board of Trustees of the Russian Chess Federation. Recipient of the State Prize of the Russian Federation for 2018.
Information for December 2021