Katya Apekisheva

Born in Moscow into a family of musicians, Katya started to play the piano at the age of five and a year later entered the famous Gnessin School of Music where she was taught by Ada Traub and Anna Kantor.  She continued her studies with Irina Berkovich at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem where she won an American-Israel Cultural Foundation Award and took second prize at the Young Talents Radio Competition performing Prokofiev’s First Piano Concerto with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra.

In 1994 Katya moved to London to study at the Royal College of Music with Irina Zaritskaya and the following year won the President’s Rose Bowl for the most outstanding pianist of the year presented by HRH The Prince of Wales.  In 1996 she won sixth prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition. The same year she was London Philharmonic/Pioneer Young Soloist of the Year which led to performances with London Philharmonic Orchestra.

In susbsequent years, Katya was presented with the Terence Judd Award for the Most Outstanding Pianist of the Year and took second prize at the Scottish International piano competition.  She also won the Schubert prize at the AXA Dublin Piano Competition.  Katya is a frequent guest at festivals including Gilmore (USA), Warwick, Thaxted, Grassington, Cheltenham, Bath, Perigord-Noir(France), ‘Homecoming’ and ‘Crescendo’ (Russia).

Katya  has performed throught Russia, Italy, Germany, Holland, Israel, Turkey, USA, South Korea and Philippines, working with such orchestras as the London Philharmonic, CBSO, Philharmonia, Halle, Moscow Philharmonic and with such conductors as Alexander Lazarev, David Shallon, Alexander Rudin and Sir Simon Rattle.
As a chamber musician Katya collaborates regularly with  ensembles including Tippett, Gabrieli and Belcea quartets, Covent Garden Soloists, Kandinsky and Gnessin trios and soloists Janine Jansen, Boris Brovtsyn, Jack Liebeck, Maxim Rysanov, Natalie Clein, Alexei Ogrinchuk and Boris Andrianov.  She has made  several recordings for BBC Radio 3 and has made a solo CD on the Master Musicians Label.  In 2004 Katya released a CD with Jack Liebeck on Quartz which received high critical acclaim and was nominated fora Classical Brit Award.

In the past few months Katya has performed at Janine Jansen’s Festival in Utrecht (Holland), the ‘Homecoming’ Festival in Moscow and the Bath International Festival.  Her performances have included the Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto with the Worthing Symphony Orchestra, a Wigmore Hall recital and a recital at Birmingham Symphony Hall with Jack Liebeck.  She has also taken part in the Norwich and Norfolk Festival and ‘Music in Country Churches’ Festival performing with Natalie Clein.

Future plans include recitals with Natalie Clein, Jack Liebeck, recordings for BBC Radio 3 and a CD release with Maxim Rysanov and Boris Brovtsyn featuring the music of Brahms.