Tonight Poulenc Concerto will be performed by Alexander Malofeev and Sandro Nebieridze, Grand Prix winners of the 1st Grand Piano Competition.

Alexander Malofeev was born in Moscow in 2001. He is a student of the Gnessin Moscow Children’s School of Music with Elena Berezkina, Honoured Cultural Worker of Russia. He has been awarded 1 st Prize and Gold Medal at the 7 th Youth Tchaikovsky Competition (Moscow, 2014) and Grand Prix at the 1 st International Grand Piano Competition for Young Pianists (2016). In April 2017, at the opening of the International Piano Festival of Brescia and Bergamo, Malofeev was awarded with Premio Giovane Talento Musicale dell’anno 2017 Prize (2017’s Best Young Musician), and in December 2017, he received the title of Young Yamaha Artist in Japan. Furthermore, Alexander Malofeev has been among prize-winners of major Russian and international competitions, including the 1 st Vladimir Krainev Moscow International Piano Competition (2015), Russian Youth Delphic Games (2012 and 2015, Gold Medal), 9 th  International Rachmaninoff Competition for Young Pianists (Veliky Novgorod, Russia, 2014, Special Prize for the Best Performance of J. S. Bach works), and 1 st Astana Piano Passion International Competition for Young Pianists (2013, 1 st Prize).

He has performed on world’s leading stages, such as Moscow Bolshoi Theatre, Great Hall, Small Hall and Rachmaninoff Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, Philharmonia-2, Moscow International Performing Arts Centre, Galina Vishnevskaya Opera Centre, Mariinsky Theatre, State Kremlin Palace, Teatro alla Scala (Milan), Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Kurhaus Wiesbaden (Germany), Queensland Performing Arts Centre (Australia), National Centre for the Performing Arts (Beijing; China), Shanghai Oriental Art Centre, Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, Kaufman Music Centre (New York City), and UNESCO Headquarters (Paris). He has also given recitals in Finland, France, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, Spain, Netherlands, Portugal, and Azerbaijan.

Alexander has appeared with numerous orchestras including National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia; Moscow Virtuosi State Symphony Orchestra, Mariinsky Orchestra, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, Novaya Rossiya National Symphony Orchestra, State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia “Evgeny Svetlanov”, Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala, Baltic Sea Philharmonic, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, and Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra, under the batons of Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Spivakov, Alexander Sladkovsky, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Eduard Topchjan, Alondra de la Parra, Kristjan Järvi, Dmitry Liss, Alexander Soloviev, Kazuki Yamada, and Gábor Takács-Nagy to name but a few. Alexander Malofeev has participated in major festivals in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Irkutsk, various cities of France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Israel. He is the scholarship holder of Vladimir Spivakov Charity Foundation, New Names Charity Foundation and Mstislav Rostropovich Foundation. In 2016, the Master Performers label published the debut DVD of Alexander Malofeev recorded at the Queensland Conservatory (Brisbane, Australia).

Sandro Nebieridze was born in 2001 in Tbilisi and started the piano at the age of 5. He has been composing since he was 9. He studied with Professor Lali Sanikidze (piano) and Professor Maki Virsaladze at the Tbilisi Conservatory Music Seminary. He has been prize-winner at  international piano competitions, namely Musica.Sepashvili Klavierwettbeweb (2009), Dvarionas Competition (2012), Sberbank Debut Festival and Competition (2013), and Astana Piano Passion Festival and Competition (2015). In 2016, he was awarded the Grand Prix at the 1st Grand Piano Competition.

Nebieridze has participated in Denis Matsuev Competition in Perm, Ekaterinburg and Irkutsk, various festivals, such as Crescendo and White Lilac festivals, Auvers-sur- Oise festival (France), Mozart-Augsburg and Festspiele der Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Germany), Tbilisi International Chamber Music Festival, Night Serenades Festival by Liana Isakadze in Batumi, Kurt Schmid and Young Talents festival, and several charity concerts in Hamburg and Berlin. Apart from piano works, he authored the quartet “Solar System”, the chamber opera “Once Upon a Time”, a Piano Concerto, two piano trios, a Sonata for Solo Cello, and a Symphonic Ballad. His works have been awarded at such competitions as Best Composition 2016 (Piano Concerto, Tbilisi), Best Composition 2017 (The Elements piano trio, Georgia), Golden Key Piano Composition Competition 2018 (Piano Toccata, Vienna), and Composition nomination of the Taktakishvili Competition (Piano Toccata, Tbilisi). In 2017, he presented the Russian premiere of his Piano Concert at the Denis Matsuev Festival in Perm. In 2018, his trio “The Elements” was premiered in St. Petersburg, at the 2 nd World of the Arts International Festival.