Arseniy Gusev
Russia | Age 23
When Arseniy Gusev was 5 years old, an upright piano was brought into his St. Petersburg home, and he immediately started playing and experimenting with it. He wrote his first piece—a romance on a Pushkin poem—shortly thereafter, and his grandmother asked him if he would like to go to music school. He went on to study both composition and piano performance at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Upon graduation in 2018, he moved to the United States, where he attends the Cleveland Institute of Music, under the tutelage of Sergei Babayan (piano) and Keith Fitch (composition).
He has performed in Austria, Belgium, Italy, Russia, Slovakia, Germany, and the United States, and his compositions have been heard in Mariinsky Theatre, Carnegie Hall, Konzerthaus Dortmund, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, and other major venues. Arseniy is a laureate of many prestigious competitions, such as the Dorothy McKenzie Artist Award, Cleveland Piano Virtu(al)oso Competition, Singapore International Piano Competition, Three Arts Piano Competition, Cleveland Composers Guild Contest, “Another Space” Composition Competition, International Gavrilin Competition, International Competition “Performer-Composer,” and others.
Arseniy has an exclusive publishing contract with Kompozitor, one of the biggest publishers in Eastern Europe. He says: “I hope to do everything I can to bring the tradition of composer-pianists back on a new level.”
REPERTOIRE
Preliminary Round
GIBBONS Lord Salisbury’s Pavane
FROBERGER Aria in D Minor, FbWV 636
FRANCK Prélude, Choral et Fugue
HOUGH Fanfare Toccata
SCRIABIN Sonata No. 7, op. 64 “White Mass”
Quarterfinal Round
RACHMANINOV Prelude in D-flat Major, op. 32, no. 13
SCHUMANN Symphonic Etudes, op. 13 and op. posth.
GUSEV Toccata No. 1
Semifinal Round – Recital
MESSIAEN “Le baiser de l’Enfant-Jésus” and “Regard de l’Esprit de joie” from Vingt Regards sur l’enfant-Jésus
LIGETI Etude No. 7 “Galamb Borong”
LIGETI Etude No. 13 “L’escalier du diable”
KURTÁG “Les adieux” from Játékok
SCHUBERT Sonata in C Minor, D. 958
Semifinal Round – Mozart concerto
MOZART Piano Concerto No. 24 in C Minor, K. 491
Final Round – Concerto I
RAVEL Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in D Major
Final Round – Concerto II
BRAHMS Piano Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, op. 15