Pavel Kolesnikov is a Russian pianist who is applauded by the most chic halls in the world. In his incomplete thirty years, the young man made London talk about himself and was chosen by the world famous Air Force company Proms as a young talent under the New Generation Artist program, which means "artist of a new generation". One of the world's most respected newspapers, The Telegraph, published an enthusiastic review of Paul’s game, saying that London hadn’t seen anything like this for many years. Critics of the legendary The Guardian called Kolesnikov an amazing and unique pianist of his kind.
However, few people know that at the very beginning of his musical career Kolesnikov did not seriously consider the piano as a playing instrument. The guy was crazy in love with the sound of the violin and devoted all his strength to learning to master this instrument skillfully.
Pavel Kolesnikov: interesting facts
This artist abroad is called a genius. Pavel Kolesnikov is a pianist whose game is admired by hundreds of thousands of listeners around the world. But paradoxically, the world-recognized master could not achieve such admiration in his homeland. He was considered a pretty good performer, always promising. In 2007, Pasha was even awarded the Young Talent of Russia award, but Kolesnikov never made a significant breakthrough in Russia. In his homeland, he twice, in 2007 and 2011, took part in the International Music Competition. Tchaikovsky. But never a genius recognized by the international community did not become a laureate. Critically minded people, of course, can say that, as usual, that in the homeland of a young genius they did not make out and did not understand. But there is a version that Pavel Kolesnikov, a pianist whose biography is discussed in our article, simply managed to greatly improve the technique of his playing and inwardly became ready for international victories only after moving to London.
Scientist Parents
Pavel Kolesnikov was born in 1989 in one of the Novosibirsk academic towns. His parents were scientists (geneticist and physicist), and they could hardly have imagined that his son’s fascination with playing the violin and then the piano would bring world fame to his son.
As Pavel Kolesnikov himself recalled in a recent interview (a pianist, a photo of which can be seen in this material), his parents assumed a different life course for him, they hoped that Pasha, like almost all members of their family, would be engaged in science.
First meeting with a violin
When Kolesnikov was 6 years old, his parents took him with them to a concert of a symphony orchestra. There, the boy first heard the live sound of the violin and, as it seemed to him at that time, fell in love with her forever. The child was eager to learn how to play this instrument, and the parents, in spite of the fact that they represented a profession far from music for their son in the future, could not refuse their child. At the age of six, Pavel Kolesnikov first entered the music school, where he began to study in the class “Violin and Piano”. At the same time, the violin was the main instrument for him, and the piano lessons were as additional, secondary, one might even say, for general musical development.
Right teacher
The very first piano teacher, about whom today Pavel Kolesnikov (a pianist whose biography is of interest to the whole world musical elite) speaks with warmth and great respect, Olga Viktorovna Gvozdeva became. She understood that most of the children who came to the music school would not become world-class musicians, and that most likely they needed to play the instruments simply for general development. That is why Olga Viktorovna did not require a strict technical game from the children. She tried to simply interest them and instill in them a love of the piano. It was with her that Kolesnikov worked for eight years. All this time he was happy to come to Gvozdeva’s lessons, but always considered the violin to be his top priority.
The teacher, in turn, apparently, was one of the first to notice that Pasha has special inclinations for playing the piano. The day came when she decided that it was time for her student to go to another teacher, who became Olga Pankova.
Understanding the piano and perfecting the technique
Pavel Kolesnikov, whose biography by and large has changed after the change of a piano teacher, was initially against such changes. Pankova focused on the technique of the game and made her work on several shirts of notes for two hours. During such painstaking, thorough and detailed work on the work of Debussy, Pavel Kolesnikov realized what an amazing variety of sounds can be produced using the piano. He began to devote more and more time to this instrument, and very soon the young man managed to catch his piano peers in the playing technique.
He enters Novosibirsk College at the Academy of Music, where the legendary Mary Lebenzon becomes his teacher and mentor.
Education in Moscow
It was during classes with Lebenzon that Pavel began to realize that now he receives much more pleasure from playing the piano than from playing the violin. The teacher literally looked at the guy under each finger and brought his ability to play the instrument to perfection. And only in 2007 Kolesnikov made the final decision for himself to give preference not to the violin, but to the piano.
He moves to the capital and enters training at the Moscow Conservatory. There, Sergei Dorensky becomes his teacher.
Parallel training with several masters
Once, while studying, Kolesnikov has the opportunity to visit London, where he held a master class with Norma Fisher, a famous British music teacher. Her approach to study and, in fact, to the playing of the instrument itself was very popular with Paul, and he decided to enter her course at the Royal College of Music in London. At the same time, he did not drop out of his studies in Moscow, but studies simultaneously in two countries.
Departure abroad and talk of an escape from military draft
Having realized that each school has its own approaches to teaching playing his now beloved instrument, Pavel decides to continue his studies in Brussels. There, he learns from a world-famous pianist named Maria Juan Pires. At this time, stubborn rumors began to appear in the pianist’s homeland, in Russia, that Pavel, while staying abroad for a long time, was trying to hide from draft in the army.
On this occasion, an article was even published in Komsomolskaya Pravda, in which Kolesnikov’s Moscow teacher Sergei Dorensky expressed his serious concerns that Pasha would most likely not return home.
The teacher said that it was hard to call the last year of Pavel’s studies in Russia academic. The student may not appear in pairs and not answer the calls of teachers. The reason for this behavior of the musical genius was that Kolesnikov was constantly afraid of the visit of people from the military enlistment office who would hand him the summons. It is said that the reason for Paul’s panic in front of the army was that the young pianist was very afraid of injuring his hands while serving. Whether this was so in reality, one can only guess now, but the fact remains: Kolesnikov was not drafted into the Russian army, since he had practically spent the last few years abroad, occasionally coming to Russia only for certain performances.
London debut and worldwide recognition of talent
A real breakthrough in the pianist’s musical career is his victory in 2012 at one of the most prestigious international music competitions called Honens International Piano Competition. In addition to winning a worthy cash prize of $ 500,000, giving concerts in the largest cities in the world, and receiving the most flattering reviews from critics of world-renowned print reviewers, he also received an invitation to the BBC’s New Generation Artist program.
The scheme of this program is designed for 2 years (Kolesnikov was elected one of the new generation of musicians for 2014-2016), and it implies all kinds of support and promotion of talented musicians who perform classical music. As part of this program, Pavel will have the opportunity to take part in live broadcasts, work in record studios and just play concerts with BBC orchestras.
At the same time, Pavel Kolesnikov, whose personal life interests his fans around the world, does not disclose information about whether he has a girlfriend, publicly. He retains the intrigue, apparently wanting people to discuss his magnificent work, and not personal relationships with the opposite sex.