When a revolutionary new piano design, the Maene-Viñoly Concert Grand, needed to be test-driven last year, its creators chose Kirill Gerstein. For wherever this inspirational figure leads, people tend to follow, correctly assuming that whatever he does will in some way be original.
We saw this in the pandemic. He was not the only musician to invite us into their living room, but no one came near his tally of online guests, because what he offered was much more than a free recital: each week he hosted a musical seminar - all now archived and available to the public - with speakers not only from the world of music, but also from architecture, choreography and philosophy. "They certainly haven't replaced live music,' he says of those online events; 'but they did allow us to bring together interesting people from all over Europe. For example, it was nice to see Steven Isserlis in his kitchen, flipping over the pages as he explained Beethoven's cello sonatas. And I love interviewing people.'
Gerstein lives in Berlin, where he's a professor at the Hanns Eisler Academy. He is also on the faculty of Kronberg Academy, which hosts his 'Kirill Gerstein invites' seminars, and this year has residencies at Wigmore Hall in London, with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich and at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. Having lived in the US throughout his teens and twenties, his roots are deep there, and with his dizzy touring schedule in every part of the globe barring his native Russia - he is hard to pin down.
This story is from the April 2023 edition of BBC Music Magazine.
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This story is from the April 2023 edition of BBC Music Magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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