Born in 1982 in St Petersburg, Alexey Zuev gave his first public performance in the State Cappella hall there aged 8 and won Prokofiev's International Piano Competition at 17;  comment was made of his interpretation as well as virtuosity in unforgettable performances of  the Piano Concertos 1, 2 and 3 as well as the piano sonatas and miniatures.

Meeting the outstanding musician Alexei Lubimov in Salzburg has played an important role in Zuev's creative formation, broadening the sphere of his musical and performing interests: historical harpsichord, hammerklavier, romantic fortepiano practices, penetrating the world of radical musical avant-garde of XX century (chance music, minimalism), into the world of early music (from Gregorian Choral to Netherlands polyphonists of XV century), into classical art- and jazz rock. The wide ranging nature of Zuev's interests has made him revise interpretations of the well known pieces whilst inspiring the discovery of little known or unfairly neglected repertoire.   

Together they play a programme of late Beethoven Sonatas and related 20th century masterpieces in a series of performances at the Concertgebouw, Bruges during May, 2012.

By means of a brilliant technique and awareness of  all sound possibilities, Zuev can be  a subtle lyricist (Schubert), a witty illusionist (Weber, Liszt), graphic but not restrained (Scarlatti and... Chopin!),  brutal but not aggressive (Prokofiev), dreamy impetuous (Schumann, Brahms) but always proportionally classical.

Performances:

Gergiev’s “World Orchestra for Peace” in St. Petersburg and Moscow.

Many Festival performances including:  Kreuth Festival of Oleg Kagan and Natalia Gutman; St Gallen Festival  (Austria), ‘ Klavier-Olympiade” in Bad Kissingen, “Alpenklassik” in Bad Reichenhall, “Kissinger Sommer” and “Winterzauber”, Festival of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the Ruhr International Piano festival .  Additional recitals and concerto performances in Luxembourg, Austria, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Russia.

Most recently a performance of the Britten Piano concerto in Winterthur Switzerland.

Prize winner in the S. Richter International competition (2008)

It is enough to remember Zuev's Weber Sonata №4 or Schubert impromptus. I haven't heard before such an immersion in the atmosphere of fascinating piano sound with appealing naturalness and expressiveness of musical images... (Gerard Kimeclis).

Alexey Zuev's debut CD of works by Weber, Schubert and Brahms was issued in 2008 in “Russian Virtuosos” series by “Art-Classics” (Moscow).

Alexey Zuev began playing piano aged 7, at the School of Music and the Special Music Conservatory School. He took part in various master classes with such distinguished musicians as John O'Conor, Lev Naumov, Victor Rosenbaum, Sergei Dorensky.

He also took part in:

• Music Festival on the Elba Island (Italy, 1997);
• "The Stars of the White Nights" in St. Petersburg (2003);
• Moscow Easter Festival (2003) (both at the Sir George Solti's "The World Orchestra for Peace" with Valery Gergiev);
• Oleg Kagan Music Festival in Kreuth (2004),
• Kissinger Sommer (2005);
• Winterzauber (2005, Bad Kissingen);
• Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festspiele (2005);
• Klavier-Festival Ruhr (2008, Germany);
• Festival Sankt-Gallen in Austria.

In 1999 he was awarded the second prize (the first prize wasn't awarded) at the Third International Prokofiev Competition in Saint-Petersburg.

In 2002 he received the Educational Award at the London International Piano Competition.

In 2003 he became a scholar of the Herbert von Karajan Centre, Vienna.

In 2004 he became winner of the "Klavierolympiade" in Bad Kissingen (Germany).

In 2008 he won the 5th prize at the International Sviatoslav Richter Competition in Moscow.

In 2009 he won 2nd prize at prestigious Geza Anda piano competition in Zurich,

Performances in Luxembourg, Austria, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Russia.
He has studied at the Mozarteum University, Salzburg (Austria) with Professor Alexei Lubimov and was a student of Professor Elisso Wirssaladze the Music and Theatre High-School in Munich (Germany), from 2007.

Conductor Vladimir Jurowski is also a great supporter of Alexey Zuev’s playing.

June 2013