Denis Matsuev was born in 1975 in Irkutsk. He graduated from the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory, where he had been taught by Aleksey Nasedkin and Sergei Dorensky. The pianist became widely famous after his triumph at the XI International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1998.
Denis Matsuev performs in the best concert halls in the world. The musician has given recitals at Carnegie Hall in New York, Chicago Symphony Center, Maison symphonique de Montréal, Koerner Hall in Toronto, Victoria Hall in Geneva, Wiener Konzerthaus and Musikverein, Royal Festival Hall in London, Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid, G.Verdi Conservatory in Turin, Tonhalle in Zurich, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Gasteig in Munich, Accademia Filarmonica Romana, Conservatorio di Musica in Milan, the main concert halls of Boston, Washington, as well as Moscow, St Petersburg and other Russian cities.
The musician is a frequent guest of world famous music festivals in Edinburgh, Baden-Baden, Schleswig-Holstein, Rheingau, Verbier, Chicago (Ravinia Festival), Los Angeles, St Petersburg (Stars of the White Nights Festival), Salzburg (Easter Festival), Lucerne, Linz (Bruckner Festival), Stockholm (Baltic Sea Festival), Stresa, Aix-en-Provence, La Roque-d’Anthéron, Bucharest, etc.
The pianist’s partners on stage include the world’s best known orchestras from the USA (New York Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestras), Germany (Munich Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, WDR Funkhausorchester, Staatskapella Dresden), France (Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de Paris and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France), Great Britain (BBC Symphony, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and “Philharmonia” Orchestra of London), as well as the Amsterdam Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Mariinsky Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala, Orchestra of Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Vienna Symphony, Israel Philharmonic and Rotterdam Philharmonic, Oslo Symphony, National Orchestra of Belgium, Swiss Romande Orchestra, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Budapest and Verbier Festival Orchestras, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and the European Chamber Orchestra.
Denis Matsuev has regularly appeared with the most distinguished conductors on a stage today, including Valery Gergiev, Yuri Temirkanov, Mariss Jansons, Zubin Mehta, Ricсardo Chailly, Christian Thielemann, Kurt Masur, Lorin Maazel, Paavo Järvi, Antonio Pappano, Charles Dutoit, Alain Gilbert, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Yury Bashmet, Mikhail Pletnev, Vladimir Spivakov, Leonard Slatkin, Iván Fischer, Semyon Bychkov, Gianandrea Noseda, Myung-Whun Chung, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Manfred Honeck, James Conlon, Alexander Sladkovsky, Neeme Järvi, Kristjan Järvi and many others.
Denis Matsuev has been a soloist with the Moscow Philharmonic Society since 1995, where he has presented his annual personal subscription since 2004. He also tours extensively throughout Russia, participates in regional festivals and actively contributes to the development of the Russian philharmonic art.
Denis Matsuev is the President of the Charitable Foundation New Names named after Ivetta Voronova, the Artistic Director of the International Competitions for Young Pianists Astana Piano Passion (Astana) and Grand Piano Competition (Moscow), and the Artistic Director of the Sergei Rachmaninoff Foundation. In 2006, the pianist became a member of the Council for Culture and Arts of the President of the Russian Federation.
Winning one of the most prestigious world music awards, Shostakovich’s Prize, in 2010, came as a landmark event for the musician. In the same year, Denis Matsuev became recipient of the State Prize of the Russian Federation in Literature and Arts. In 2011, he was awarded the title of the People’s Artist of Russia. In the same year, he became Honorary Professor of the M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University. Since 2012, Denis Matsuev has been the head of the Public Council under the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation.
In 2014, Denis Matsuev was awarded the honor of performing at the official Closing Ceremony of the XXII Winter Olympic Games in Sochi. In 2014, UNESCO awarded him the honorary title of UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. In 2016, Denis Matsuev was announced as 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia ambassador and acted as the ideological inspirer and organizer of the gala concert with the participation of Valery Gergiev, Anna Netrebko, Plácido Domingo and other stars of classical art on Red Square on June 13, 2018 in Moscow, the day before the World Cup started in Russia. In 2022, he became the Artistic Director of the Rachmaninoff International Competition of Pianists, Composers, and Conductors. In 2019 and 2023, he was the Chairman of the jury for the International Tchaikovsky Competition in the piano category.
In 2016, Denis Matsuev was awarded the State Order of Honor, and also became recipient of the Russian Government Prize in Culture for the Stars on Baikal International Music Festival. In 2019, he was awarded the Lev Nikolaev Gold Medal for his significant contribution to education and popularization of the achievements in science and culture. In 2020, Deutsche Grammophon released an album by Denis Matsuev performing together with the Chamber Orchestra Vienna – Berlin. The album included masterpieces by Shostakovich, Schnittke and Lutosławski. In 2021, for the first time in the history of the International Classical Music Award (ICMA), the Russian pianist became a prize-winner for the Best Video Performance: Denis Matsuev was awarded the prize for the performance of the Rachmaninoff’s program with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra conducted by Ricсardo Chailly.
