2005 Cliburn Gold Medalist
2025 Screening Juror
UNITED STATES
Called the “Van Cliburn of today” by the BBC, pianist Alexander Kobrin has placed himself at the forefront of today’s performing musicians. His prize-winning performances have been praised for their brilliant technique, musicality, and emotional engagement with the audience. The New York Times has written that he was a “fastidious guide” to Schumann’s “otherworldly visions, pointing out hunters, flowers, haunted corners and friendly bowers, all captured in richly characterized vignettes.” And after a performance of Brahms' Second Piano Concerto with Syracuse Symphony, another critic wrote, "This was a performance that will be revered and remembered as a landmark of the regeneration of exceptional classical music in Central New York.”
In 2005, Mr. Kobrin was awarded the Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Gold Medal at the Twelfth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas. His numerous successes in competitions also include top prizes at the Busoni International Piano Competition (First Prize), Hamamatsu International Piano Competition (Top Prize), and Scottish International Piano Competition in Glasgow (First Prize).
He has performed with many of the world’s great orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic, Russian National Orchestra, Belgrade Philharmonic, English Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra Verdi, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Moscow Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony, Berliner Symphony, Chicago Sinfonietta, Swedish Radio Symphony, Birmingham Symphony, Warsaw Philharmonic, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He has collaborated with such conductors as Mikhail Pletnev, Mikhail Jurovsky, Mark Elder, Vassiliy Sinaisky, James Conlon, Claus Peter Flor, Alexander Lazarev, Vassiliy Petrenko, and Bramwell Tovey.
He has appeared in recital at major halls worldwide, including Carnegie Zankel Hall and Avery Fisher Hall in New York; the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; Albert Hall and Wigmore Hall in London; Louvre Auditorium, Salle Gaveau, and Salle Cortot in Paris; Munich Herkulesaal and Berliner Filarmonia Hall in Germany; the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire; Sheung Wan Civic Centre in Hong Kong; as well as Sala Verdi in Milan and many others. Other past performances have included recitals at Bass Performance Hall for Cliburn Concerts, Washington Performing Arts, La Roque d’Antheron, Ravinia Festival, Beethoven Easter Festival, Busoni Festival, Klavier-Festival Ruhr, Festival Musique dans le Grésivaudan, International Keyboard Institute & Festival, and annual concert tours in Japan, China, and Taiwan.
Though widely acclaimed as a performer, Mr. Kobrin’s teaching has been an inspiration to many students through his passion for music. From 2003 to 2010 he served on the faculty of the Russian State Gnessin’s Academy of Music. In 2010 he was named the L. Rexford Distinguished Chair in Piano at the Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University, and from 2013 until 2017 has been a member of the Artist Faculty of New York University’s Steinhardt School. In July 2017, he joined the faculty of the renowned Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. He has also given masterclasses in Europe and Asia, the International Piano Series, and at the Conservatories of Japan and China. In 2020, he became co-director of Hiiumaa Homecoming Festival in Estonia.
Mr. Kobrin has been a jury member for many international piano competitions, including the Cliburn in Fort Worth (Texas), Busoni in Bolzano, Hamamatsu in Japan, Blüthner in Vienna, E-Competition in Fairbanks (Alaska), and Neuhaus in Moscow.
He has released recordings on the harmonia mundi, Quartz, and Centaur labels, covering a wide swath of the piano literature to critical acclaim. His Schumann album, released on Centaur Records has been included into the top five albums of the year in 2015 by Fanfare Magazine. Gramophone Magazine raved about his Cliburn Competition release on harmonia mundi, writing that “in [Rachmaninov’s] Second Sonata (played in the 1931 revision), despite fire-storms of virtuosity, there is always room for everything to tell and Kobrin achieves a hypnotic sense of the music’s dark necromancy.”
Mr. Kobrin was born in 1980 in Moscow. At the age of 5, he was enrolled in the Gnessin Special School of Music, after which he attended the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatoire. His teachers have included renowned professors Tatiana Zelikman and Lev Naumov.
He immigrated to the United States in 2010 and became a citizen in 2015.
Mr. Kobrin is a Shigeru Kawai artist.