KSENIA KOUZMENKO

Ksenia Kouzmenko is internationally renowned for her sensitive and technically accomplished piano playing, and is a much sought after partner in chamber music.

Born in Minsk, Belarus, to a family of pianists, she studied with Vladimir Zaretsky and Grigory Shershevsky, the former teacher of her father, at the National Music College in Minsk. At the age of twelve she made her solo debut with orchestra. Over the next few years she performed piano concertos of Beethoven and Rachmaninov. She graduated cum laude, with a Gold Medal and continued her piano studies at the National Music Academy with Igor Olovnikov, where she received her Master degree cum laude. She pursued her postgraduate studies with Naum Grubert at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, with financial support of the Yuri Egorov Foundation.

Ksenia Kouzmenko has taken part in many masterclasses with outstanding musicians such as Abbey Simon, György Sándor, Earl Wild, György Kurtág, and Ivan Moravec, and attended courses in Bach-interpretation with Walter Blankenheim. In the summer of 1997 she followed an intensive chamber music program at Tanglewood in the USA.

Ksenia Kouzmenko won the 2nd prize at the Tromp Competition in Eindhoven, where she also received the Audience Prize, and the 3rd prize at the Rencontres Musicales de Gaillard, France. She also received many prizes for accompaniment at numerous international competitions.

She has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra of Belarus, the Brabants Orkest, the Collegium Instrumentale Brugense, and the Nederlands Blazersensemble. She was a soloist in the Kurtág-project of the Royal Conservatory conducted by Reinbert de Leeuw, and on recommendation of György Kurtág himself played his “...quasi una fantasia...” with the Orchestra della Svizzerra Italiana conducted by Olivier Cuendet, at the Lugano Festival. She recorded concerts for the National Broadcast Corporation of Belarus, Radiotelevisione Svizzerra Italiana, Dutch television, and Dutch and Belgian national radio channels (Radio 4 and Brava).

Ksenia Kouzmenko has performed in Germany (Beethoven Festival in Bonn), England, Greece, Switzerland, Belgium (Festival van Vlaanderen), Italy, Slovenia (Tartini Festival), Spain (Festival “Semana de Musica Caja Astur”), Russia (Hermitage, St. Petersburg), and all over the Netherlands.

Since 1999 she has been teaching at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague.

Ksenia Kouzmenko plays chamber music in almost every combination possible, and has built up an enormously broad repertoire ranging  from Bach to Kurtág. Among her long-time partners are wonderful musicians such as the violinist Lisa Jacobs, cellist Lucie Štěpánová, clarinetist André Kerver and many others. She is constantly searching for new, unknown compositions and is fond of making unusual, inspiring programs. This results in very personal CD-projects and a number of world premières. Recently, she discovered the joy of playing on an Érard grand piano, with its exciting sound possibilities.

 

Discography:

2013: “Poème”. Franck, Ysaÿe. With Lisa Jacobs (violin). Challenge Records, CC72624

2018: “Whispering Leaves”.  Janáček, Páleníček*, Martinů. With Lucie Štěpánová (cello). Cobra Records, COBRA 0069

2018: “Ranges of Érard”. Heller, Chopin, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, de Falla, Rachmaninov, Scriabin, Cervantes. This recording was made in Middelburg on an Érard Concert Grand (London, 1863). Zefir Records, ZEF 9656

2019: “Fenêtre sur le jardin”: Czech music for piano solo. Suk, Janáček, Martinů, Kvapil* and Kabeláč*. Cobra Records, COBRA 0070

2020: "Vánoce". Christmas in Czech piano music. Suk, Kvapil*, Novák, Křička*, Janáček, Martinů. Cobra Records, COBRA 0079

*world première on CD

 

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