When *Alexander Kobrin* was a toddler in Russia, he played happily with his toys as long as he could hear music. When the radio was turned off, he cried. His piano-teacher father taught Mr. Kobrin how to play when he was five. Although he often preferred playing soccer to practicing, the piano became so important to him that the first compact disc he bought was one by famed pianist Van Cliburn. On June 5, at the age of twenty-five, Mr. Kobrin was awarded the Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Gold Medal at the Twelfth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, along with three years of international concert engagements coordinated by IMG Artists Europe, and a compact disc recording of his award-winning Cliburn Competition performances for the harmonia mundi usa label.
First-prize winner of the 1999 Busoni Competition and a top prize winner of both the 2000 Chopin and 2003 Hamamatsu Competitions, Alexander Kobrin has toured extensively throughout Europe, South America, and Asia. He has performed with the Moscow Virtuosi, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Virtuosi of Salzburg Chamber Orchestra, and the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra. Recent engagements include collaborations with the Rio de Janeiro Symphonic Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, and the Osaka and Tokyo Symphony Orchestras. Last season, Mr. Kobrin toured Italy and Japan while completing his graduate studies at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory under the direction of Lev Naumov.
As a result of his Cliburn victory, Mr. Kobrin will tour extensively throughout the United States during the 2005-2006 concert season including appearances with the Bakersfield, El Paso, Eugene, Pacific, and Utah Symphony Orchestras and the Fort Wayne and Rochester Philharmonic Orchestras. U.S. recital invitations will bring him to audiences in Anchorage, Birmingham, Burlington, Boulder, Clearwater, Houston, Kansas City, La Jolla, Lincoln, New Orleans, Santa Barbara, Stanford, and Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center among others. Overseas, Mr. Kobrin will participate in the Klavier-Festival Ruhr and Schleswig Holstein Festivals in Germany and looks forward to concerts in France, Italy, and the United Kingdom beginning with the summer of 2006.
In addition to the Cliburn Competition disc for harmonia mundi to be released in fall 2005, Mr. Kobrin has recorded a disc devoted to Chopin for an international label. He also appears in _In the Heart of Music_, the film documentary about the 2005 Cliburn Competition, which aired on PBS stations across the United States throughout October 2005. When Alexander Kobrin is not performing, he teaches at the Moscow State Gnessin Academy of Music.
