Through his extraordinary virtuosity and powerful interpretations, Evgeny Kissin stands at the forefront of the young generation of pianists. He is now in demand the world over, appearing regularly with such conductors as Seiji Ozawa, Claudio Abbado, Vladimir Ashkenazy, James Levine, Carlo Maria Giulini, Kurt Masur and Daniel Barenboim, as well as with all the major orchestras. He makes regular recital tours to the United States, Japan and Europe, and his recordings have received numerous awards and accolades.

Kissin's latest recording for Sony Classical, featuring the Beethoven Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 5 with the Philharmonia Orchestra and conductor James Levine, has won international critical acclaim since its release in 1997.

Evgeny Kissin was born in Moscow in 1971 and began to play and improvise on the piano at the age of two. He entered the Moscow Gnessin School of Music for Gifted Children at the age of six, where he studied with Anna Pavlovna Kantor. At the age of ten he made his performing debut playing Mozart's Piano Concerto K. 466 with the Orchestra of Ulyanovska, and he gave his first solo recital in Moscow at age eleven. He first came to international attention in March 1984, when he performed the two Chopin concertos in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory with the Moscow State Philharmonic under Dmitri Kitaenko.

Kissin made his West European debut in 1987 at the Berlin Festival, and in 1988 he toured Europe with the Moscow Virtuosi and Vladimir Spivakov. He made his BBC Promenade debut under David Atherton in 1988 and took part in the Berlin Philharmonic's New Year's Eve concert under the late Herbert von Karajan. In September 1990 he made an acclaimed North American debut playing both Chopin piano concertos with the New York Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta. The following week, the young pianist opened Carnegie Hall's centennial season with a spectacular debut recital. Next autumn he celebrates the tenth anniversary of this debut with a major recital tour of North America.

Since then, musical awards from around the world have been heaped upon Kissin. He was special guest at the 1992 Grammy Awards ceremony, and he became the youngest-ever Musical America Instrumentalist of the Year in 1995. In 1997 he received the prestigious Triumph Award for Outstanding Contribution to Russia's Culture -- the youngest awardee ever.

In the summer of 1997 Kissin became the first pianist ever to give a recital in the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. The concert was a sell-out and is considered by the BBC to have been one of the highlights of the Festival. He has given concerto performances every year since at the Proms.

Each year Kissin gives a number of appearances with select orchestras; in the 1999-2000 season he joins the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Philharmonia Orchestra (under the direction of Vladimir Ashkenazy), the Bavarian Staatskapelle (under Zubin Mehta), the Chicago Symphony (with Daniel Barenboim), the Boston Symphony (under Emmanuel Krivine), the Bayerische Rundfunk (with Lorin Maazel) and the Leipzig Gewandhaus (with Herbert Blomstedt). This season he also gives recital tours of the United Kingdom, Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, France and Austria and appears at a number of summer festivals.