“Improvisatory instincts and formidable anatlyic powers”
GRAMOPHONE
Musical experience and Central European culture: Alexander Gadjiev owes this on the one hand to his family, where both parents are piano teachers and musicians, and on the other hand to his hometown, the Italian-Slovenian border town of Gorizia, a natural crossroads of peoples, cultures and languages.
Both factors have a decisive influence on his natural ability to absorb and process different musical styles and languages and to reshape them to his own taste. Alexander speaks 5 languages: Italian, Slovenian, English, German, Russian.
He is the cultural ambassador of his hometown “Gorizia – Nova Gorica, European Capital of Culture 2025”. In February 2023, he received the Prešeren Prize from the President of Slovenia, the highest award for artists in Slovenia.
In the summer of 2024, the first edition of the cross-border festival ‘Prečkanja – Sconfinamenti’ took place in Alexander’s home town of Gorizia-Nova Gorica and the surrounding area under his artistic direction with international musicians and Alexander Gadjiev in the role of festival director, pianist, improviser, speaker and pedagogue. In 2025, the festival will be expanded to include cooperation with Go!2025, the organisation of the cross-border cultural capital Gorizia-Nova Gorica.
Among numerous earlier prizes, Gadjiev won 1st prize at the Sydney International Piano Competition in 2021 and 2nd prize and the Krystian Zimerman Special Prize for his interpretation of a Chopin sonata at the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw. At the age of 20 he won 1st prize at the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition, where he also received the “Audience Award”, and at the age of 22 1st prize at the “World Piano Masters” in Montecarlo.
From 2019 to 2021, Gadjiev was a “BBC New Generation Artist”, which gave him the opportunity to perform at renowned British festivals and concert halls such as Wigmore Hall, London, among others, and to collaborate with various orchestras. In the process, all his concerts were recorded and broadcast by the BBC. He was also the 2022 winner of the Terence Judd Award, which lead to further engagements with the Hallé Orchestra until 2023.
Residencies over several seasons have taken Alexander Gadjiev to the Unione Musicale in Turin and Wigmore Hall London. His debuts at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino with Zubin Mehta and an immediate re-invitation followed in June 2024, as well as at the Vienna Musikverein with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra.
Taught by his father, Alexander played with an orchestra for the first time at the age of nine and gave his first solo concert at the age of ten. In 2013, he finished his school education with top grades. This enabled him to take part in the Premio Venezia – a competition reserved for the best young talents in Italy – and won the 30th edition of this prize. He studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg with Pavel Gililov and at the Hanns- Eisler-Hochschule in Berlin with Eldar Nebolsin, graduating in spring 2022.
Alexander Gadjiev regularly accepts invitations from Europe, Asia, the USA, Australia, including: Verbier Festival, MiTo Festival in Turin, “Chopin” Festival in Duszniki, Piano Festival Rafael Orozco in Cordoba, Ljubljana Festival, Bologna Festival, Settimane Musicali at Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, Festival Animato de Paris, Salzburg Festival, Festival International de Piano de La Roque d’Anthéron, Teatro La Fenice, Kioi Hall and Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo, Kitara Concert Hall in Sapporo, Hyogo Performing Arts Center in Osaka, Salle Cortot in Paris, Moscow Conservatory, Aldeburgh Festival, concert halls in Salt Lake City, Istanbul, Barcelona, Rome, Milan.
As a soloist, Alexander Gadjiev performs with numerous orchestras, such as the Warsaw Philharmonic, BBC Concert Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra Manchester, George Enescu Philharmonic Bukarest, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, Orchestra Sinfonica del Teatro della Fenice, SWR Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart, Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra, Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra.
Both in the studio and during his concerts there are numerous recordings for radio and television. In 2018 his debut album “Literary Fantasies” with pieces by Liszt and Schumann was released on the Acousense label, as well as the live recording of the International Piano Competition in Sydney on DECCA in 2021.
His latest critically acclaimed album on CAvi-music in May 2022 features compositions by Alexander & Nikolai Tcherepnin & Prokofiev.
His next solo album for Outhere Music, “Legends”, will be released in 2025.
