The Transformation of the Piano Étude

About the event

Direction: Boris Bloch, with contributions from Sabine Simon, Andrey Zenin (3rd prize-winner Darmstadt 2022), Stanislav Korchagin, Quyen Tran le Bao and Eduard Kiprsky, among others.

Over this weekend Boris Bloch examines the development of the piano étude and, with many different examples, traces the path of this genre towards an absolute art form. Chopin's Études op. 10 and op. 25 play a central role, but the journey continues much further with Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Debussy and many more.

BORIS BLOCH, born in Odessa, has long been one of the most important interpreters of classical and romantic piano music. Trained at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory in the masterclass of Dmitri Bashkirov, he developed early on a wide repertoire from Scarlatti and Bach, the Viennese Classics, Chopin and Liszt through German and Russian Romanticism to major 20th-century composers. After his studies he won several international piano competitions, including first prize at the Busoni Competition in Bolzano in 1978. His recordings of Liszt opera paraphrases received the Grand Prix International du Disque Liszt of the Liszt Society Budapest and the Diapason d'Or Paris, and his Mussorgsky piano works the Excellence Disque prize (Paris). In 2018 the Austrian Liszt Society awarded him honorary membership. For his teaching at the Folkwang University he received the music education prize of the Köhler-Osbar Foundation in 2007.

SABINE SIMON studied at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music Berlin with Annerose Schmidt and deepened her training at Indiana University Bloomington (USA) with György Sebök, Menahem Pressler and János Starker, at the Salzburg Mozarteum with Hans Leygraf and as a scholarship holder of the International Ensemble Modern Academy in Frankfurt. She made her debut with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra at the age of 16. First prizes at the National Bach Competition Leipzig and the Bechstein Competition “Piano in Concert”; special prize at the V European Chopin Competition Darmstadt; Edvard Grieg Prize Oslo. Since 2005 she has taught piano at the Akademie für Tonkunst Darmstadt.

STANISLAV KORCHAGIN, born on 23 July 1993, began performing at the age of 13 and has studied with Tatiana Zelikman at the Gnessin Academy of Music in Moscow since 2011. He is a prize-winner of the Prokofiev Open Piano Competition Moscow Region (2011) and the Moscow Music Festival “Virtuoso” (2013). In June 2022 he won 2nd prize at the All-Russian Piano Competition in Krasnoyarsk and at the end of February 2023 the 2nd prize and audience prize at the XXV International Scriabin Piano Competition in Italy. In 2016 he performed at the festival “Faces of Modern Pianism” in St Petersburg with the orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre.

TRAN LE BAO QUYEN, born in Hanoi in 1994, studied at the Vietnam National Academy of Music from 2002 to 2012. In 2013 she began her bachelor's studies with Sabine Simon at the Akademie für Tonkunst Darmstadt (graduating in 2018). She has taken part in masterclasses with Andreas Weber, Irina Edelstein, Martyn van den Hoek, Boris Bloch, Andrzej Jasiński, Martin Kasik, Hubert Rutkowski, Aleksandra Mikulska, Giuliano Mazzoccante and Dang Thai Son. She completed her Master of Music with Prof. Florian Hoelscher at the HfMDK Frankfurt.

EDUARD KIPRSKY completed his piano studies at the St Petersburg Conservatory, where he also finished postgraduate studies in piano and composition, as well as a master's degree with “artistic excellence” at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen (class of Boris Bloch). He has won several first prizes at piano and composition competitions in Europe, including the International Köhler-Osbar Competition (2009), the Steinway Advancement Prize (2012), the International Cyprus Competition 2020 (composition) and the V All-Russian Festival “Composer and Pianist” (St Petersburg 2021); 2nd prize and silver medal at the International Rachmaninoff Competition Moscow 2022 (composition). He is a member of the Association of Composers of Contemporary Music in Vienna.

ANDREY ZENIN, born in Sochi in 1995, began playing the piano at the age of four. He studied at the Rachmaninov State Conservatory in Rostov with Rimma Skorokhodova and at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Glasgow with Graeme McNaught. Today he studies with Balázs Szokolay and Thomas Steinhöfel at the Franz Liszt University of Music Weimar and holds a scholarship of the International Music Academy Liechtenstein. Numerous prizes: 1st prize Skavronsky Inspiration International Competition, 2nd prize Moscow International Fryderyk Chopin Competition for Young Pianists, semi-finalist Hamamatsu 2018, main stage of the 18th Chopin Competition Warsaw 2021. In October 2022 he received 3rd prize and the improvisation prize at the XII International Chopin Piano Competition in Darmstadt.

Biographies