Alexander Gadjev
Biography

“[…] his improvisatory instincts and formidable analytic powers enliven everything he touches, abetted by a technique that knows no difficulties plus a keen ear for nuance and tone colour.”

Grammophone Magazine

Musical experience and Central European culture: Alexander Gadjiev owes this on the one hand to his family, where both parents are piano teachers and musicians, and on the other hand to his hometown, the Italian-Slovenian border town of Gorizia, a natural crossroads of peoples, cultures and languages. Both factors have a decisive influence on his natural ability to absorb and process different musical styles and languages and to reshape them to his own taste. Alexander speaks 5 languages: Italian, Slovenian, English, German, Russian.


He is the cultural ambassador of his hometown "Gorizia - Nova Gorica, European Capital of Culture 2025". In February 2023, he received the Prešeren Prize from the President of Slovenia, the highest award for artists in Slovenia.

In the summer of 2024, the first edition of the cross-border festival ‘Prečkanja - Sconfinamenti’ took place in Alexander's home town of Gorizia-Nova Gorica and the surrounding area under his artistic direction with international musicians and Alexander Gadjiev in the role of festival director, pianist, improviser, speaker and pedagogue. In 2025, the festival will be expanded to include cooperation with Go!2025, the organisation of the cross-border cultural capital Gorizia-Nova Gorica.

Among numerous earlier prizes, Gadjiev won 1st prize at the Sydney International Piano Competition in 2021 and 2nd prize and the Krystian Zimerman Special Prize for his interpretation of a Chopin sonata at the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw. At the age of 20 he won 1st prize at the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition, where he also received the "Audience Award", and at the age of 22 1st prize at the "World Piano Masters" in Montecarlo.

From 2019 to 2021, Gadjiev was a "BBC New Generation Artist", which gave him the opportunity to perform at renowned British festivals and concert halls such as Wigmore Hall, London, among others, and to collaborate with various orchestras. In the process, all his concerts were recorded and broadcast by the BBC. He was also the 2022 winner of the Terence Judd Award, which lead to further engagements with the Hallé Orchestra until 2023.

Residencies over several seasons have taken Alexander Gadjiev to the Unione Musicale in Turin and Wigmore Hall London. His debuts at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino with Zubin Mehta and an immediate re-invitation followed in June 2024, as well as at the Vienna Musikverein with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra.

Taught by his father, Alexander played with an orchestra for the first time at the age of nine and gave his first solo concert at the age of ten. In 2013, he finished his school education with top grades. This enabled him to take part in the Premio Venezia - a competition reserved for the best young talents in Italy - and won the 30th edition of this prize. He studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg with Pavel Gililov and at the Hanns- Eisler-Hochschule in Berlin with Eldar Nebolsin, graduating in spring 2022.

Alexander Gadjiev regularly accepts invitations from Europe, Asia, the USA, Australia, including: Verbier Festival, MiTo Festival in Turin, "Chopin" Festival in Duszniki, Piano Festival Rafael Orozco in Cordoba, Ljubljana Festival, Bologna Festival, Settimane Musicali at Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, Festival Animato de Paris, Salzburg Festival, Festival International de Piano de La Roque d'Anthéron, Teatro La Fenice, Kioi Hall and Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo, Kitara Concert Hall in Sapporo, Hyogo Performing Arts Center in Osaka, Salle Cortot in Paris, Moscow Conservatory, Aldeburgh Festival, concert halls in Salt Lake City, Istanbul, Barcelona, Rome, Milan.

As a soloist, Alexander Gadjiev performs with numerous orchestras, such as the Warsaw Philharmonic, BBC Concert Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra Manchester, George Enescu Philharmonic Bukarest, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, Orchestra Sinfonica del Teatro della Fenice, SWR Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart, Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra, Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra.

Both in the studio and during his concerts there are numerous recordings for radio and television. In 2018 his debut album "Literary Fantasies" with pieces by Liszt and Schumann was released on the Acousense label, as well as the live recording of the International Piano Competition in Sydney on DECCA in 2021.

His latest critically acclaimed album on CAvi-music in May 2022 features compositions by Alexander & Nikolai Tcherepnin & Prokofiev.

His next solo album for Outhere Music, "Legends", will be released in 2025.

About me
Press
Wild

This was one of the wildest and most imaginative recitals I've ever heard.

International Piano Magazine
Revolutionary

He is a visionary, a revolutionary with a revolutionary flame in his eyes

Polish Radio Program 2
Breathtaking

But great art will out, especially in such a rarely-encountered performance as Gadjiev gave: thrilling, moving and astoundingly assured – the breathtaking end to a memorable musical event.

Robert Matthew-Walker, Musical Opinion
Beautiful Sound

Alexander Gadjiev conquers the biggest stages in the world with intoxicatingly beautiful sound and profound interpretations. He has it all: the ability to let the piano blossom opulently, a piano sound that makes the music’s tenderness enchantingly beautiful, and the ability to play rhythmically dominated music with great virtuosity.

Süddeutsche Zeitung
Firenze - Auditorium del Maggio (2025)

The “steel hands” required for this fascinating Concerto No. 2 are, in this case, those of Alexander Gadjiev, a pianist with solid technique already known to the Florentine audience. The soloist, grappling with such a complex and difficult composition, seems intent on highlighting its softer side, which is indeed present: he seizes every opportunity the score offers to delve into its hidden lyricism, seeking refined accents, phrasing, and colors. Naturally, drawing on his technical prowess, he does not hesitate to display the virtuosity necessary to master such dense and particularly challenging writing — even if at times Zangiev’s vehement (though little short of sensational) accompaniment seems to overpower him. (See more...)

OperaClick
A Polyglot Panopticon of Styles

Everything sounds so immediate and direct, as if it were being created in the very moment, with every musical material manifesting through him – and at the same time, deeply and intelligently analyzed. With closed eyes, he listens inwardly, purses his lips, and savors the contrasts and turns inherent in Beethoven’s symphonically inflected late style. His use of rubato serves purely to enhance expression, with nothing affected or mannered about it. (See more...)

Ludwigsburger Kreiszeitung
Festival Prečkanja – Sconfinamenti 2025

The Festival Prečkanja – Sconfinamenti, led by the artistic direction of Alexander Gadjiev, is a cross-border cooperation organized by Glasbena matica of Friuli Venezia Giulia and the Imago Sloveniae Foundation, will welcome a number of outstanding artists and offer a rich programme of concerts, residencies, and masterclasses. The programme focuses on top-level classical performances, with a strong emphasis on emerging international talents — the stars of tomorrow. In addition to public concerts, young musicians will participate in masterclasses led by world-class performers and pedagogues, including Gadjiev himself. (See more...)

Triumph with Scriabin

On March 5, 2025, pianist Alexander Gadjiev delivered a stunning performance at the Palatin-Staufersaal in Wiesloch, alongside the SWR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Giuseppe Mengoli. The program featured Scriabin's Piano Concerto in F-sharp minor, Op. 20, showcasing Gadjiev's poetic intensity and masterful technique. The concert was met with great acclaim. "The SWR Symphony Orchestra presented an equally opulent and original late-Romantic program and two top-class young guests at the sixth season concert of the Wiesloch Friends of Art in the almost fully occupied Palatin-Staufersaal." "'Italian conductor Giuseppe Mengoli and Italian-Slovenian pianist and Chopin Prize winner Alexander Gadjiev had chosen an all too rarely played solitaire of the genre for their joint SWR debut with Alexander Scriabin's early Piano Concerto in F-sharp minor, Op. 20." "The vehemently applauded Debussy encores "Feux d'artifice" and "Ondine" once again showed the exceptionally elegant and spirited sound magician Alexander Gadjiev in his element."

Klaus Roß
March 5, 2025, Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung