JOEY CALDERAZZO

PETRONEL MALAN

ALEXANDER PALEY

CLEMENS UNTERREINER

OVIDIO DE FERRARI

MIKHAIL PLETNEV

 

Gerard Aimontche is a prize-winner of international competitions such as Grieg International Piano Competition; 8th Maria Yudina International Competition of Young Pianists, Piano Duets, and Chambers Ensembles; 7th Nikolai Rubinstein International Competition for Young Musicians; Chappell Medal Competition and Schumann Prize Award (London); American Protégé Romantic Music Competition (New York); Guzik Foundation Award (San-Francisco). He was also a semi-finalist of Montreux Jazz Piano Competition (Switzerland); Hamamatsu Piano Competition and Cleveland Piano Competition. He has performed in Russia and abroad in such well-known venues as the Carnegie Hall; Royal Festival Hall; Tchaikovsky Concert Hall; Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory; The Kremlin Armoury; Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Changsha Concert Hall and many others.

In July 2017 Gerard made his London debut at the Royal Festival Hall with Europe's first black and minority ethnic (BME) orchestra and conductor Roderick Cox. The live recording of this performance was released on Signum Classics - leading British Independent Label. He also appeared on BBC 3 In Tune, where his performances were broadcasted live. Several times he gave concerts in different concert halls with the State Symphony Orchestra of Moscow, Kaliningrad Chamber Orchestra, Kursk Philharmonic Orchestra, Yaroslavl State Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2017 Gerard has appeared with the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba and maestro Marlon Daniel with the programme featuring ‘Burlesque’ by Richard Strauss. Gerard has been invited to perform at such international music festivals as Mozarteum (Salzburg, Austria), Montreux Jazz Festival (Montreux, Switzerland), Visiting Larisa Gergieva (Vladikavkaz, Russia), The River of Talents ( Saint Petersburg, Russia), Night in the Museum (Tretyakovskaya Gallery, Moscow, Russia), and many others. Gerard is the graduate of The Royal College of Music (Master of Performance, Artist Diploma, with Professor Norma Fisher), and the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory (postgraduate degree in performance, with Professor Sergey Dorensky). He is a Neville Wathen Scholar supported by a John & Marjorie Coultate Award and he is also supported by Talent Unlimited. Gerard holds a Music Diploma (Distinction) from Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory (2014), where he studied with Professor Sergey Dorensky and his assistants, professors Andrey Pisarev, Nikolay Lugansky, and Pavel Nersessian. In 2009 he graduated from Gnessin Music School (Undergraduate Diploma). In October 2015, Gerard Aimontche made his orchestral debut performed Rachmaninov 3rd Concerto during ‘Color of Music' Festival in Charleston, South Carolina. In July 2016 Gerard joined the Verbier Festival Academy, where he mastered his performance skills under the guidance of such brilliant musicians as Klaus Hellwig, Sergei Babayan, etc. In 2018 Gerard was invited by Steinway and Sons China to perform in series of concerts dedicated to Steinway and Sons 165th anniversary.

 

 

Historical Composers & Artists

"After my coffee and cigar we went to one of the recording rooms where they had a Blüthner piano Well, this Blüthner had the most beautiful singing tone I had ever found. I became quite enthusiastic and decided to play my beloved Barcarolle of Chopin. The piano inspired me. I don’t think I ever played better in my life.“

Arthur Rubinstein 

„My Many Years“ (page 281)

 

„In das Exil nach Amerika begleiteten mich nur zwei Wesen von Bedeutung: meine Frau Natalja und mein kostbarer Blüthner.“

“There are only two important things which I took with me on my way to America. My wife Natalia and my precious Blüthner.”

Sergei Rachmaninoff

 

 “Almost in the middle of the room, the black Blüthner grand stood, free of music, book or photographs. Debussy was proud of his grand piano, and before I played he showed me a new device invented by Blüthner: an extra string set on top of the others. Although not touched by the hammers, it caught the overtones, thus increasing the vibrations and enriching the sonority. This was a piano he had rented during a stay in Bournemouth, and liked so well that he had bought it and had it shipped to Paris.” “He played a number of passages and the tone he extracted from the Blüthner was the loveliest, the most elusive and ethereal I have ever heard”. 

letter from Maurice Dumesnil, friend

Claude Debussy

Debussy's Blüthner at the Musée Labenche