With performances distinguished by deft musicianship and a natural elegance, Moscow-born *Maxim Philippov* was named silver medalist at the Eleventh Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in June 2001. He was awarded two years of concert engagements and career management as well as a compact disc recording of his award-winning performances for the _Harmonia Mundi_ label.
Mr. Philippov has performed recitals throughout his native Russia, Europe, and North America, highlighted by appearances at important concert venues such as the Gasteig in Munich, Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, the Salle Cortot in Paris, the Tonhalle in Zurich, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. He has collaborated with the Calgary Philharmonic, the City of Birmingham Symphony, the Edinburgh Symphony, the Hamburg Symphony, the Moscow Philharmonic, and the Santo Domingo Symphony Orchestras. In the United States, Mr. Philippov has performed with the Delaware, Eugene, Jacksonville, Pacific, and Wyoming Symphony Orchestras and appeared in recital in Burlington, Dallas, New Orleans, San Antonio, Savannah, and Washington, D.C.
His 2002-2003 U.S. concert season includes performances of six different concerti. Also the recipient of a Steven De Groote Memorial Award for the Best Performance of Chamber Music during the semifinal round of the Cliburn Competition, he has collaborated with the American String Quartet and will join the Takács Quartet at the University of California in Berkeley and the University of Connecticut in Storrs this season.
Emerging as one of today’s most engaging interpreters of Rachmaninoff, Mr. Philippov has recorded two discs devoted to the solo works of this composer. The harmonia mundi disc featuring his Cliburn competition performance of several Rachmaninoff Preludes, Op. 32 was released to much critical acclaim. He was featured in Playing on the Edge, the Peabody Award-winning documentary on the Eleventh Van Cliburn International Piano Competition which premiered on PBS stations across the United States beginning in the fall of 2001, and will also appear in the forthcoming PBS “Concerto” series which showcases his final round Cliburn Competition performances with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and Maestro James Conlon.
He began studying the piano at the age of five and made his public debut when he was eight. A laureate of several major international piano competitions, including the Leeds, Rachmaninoff, Rubinstein, and Tchaikovsky Competitions, he won first prize at the 1996 Esther Honens Calgary International Piano Competition. A former pupil of Vera Gornostaeva, Mr. Philippov now resides in Moscow, where he serves on the faculty of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory.
