“His performance brought a veritable roar of approval from the audience”
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Pavel Nersessian is widely regarded by musicians, critics and listeners as one of the most refined and inwardly powerful pianists of his generation. He has been touring Russia and neighboring countries since the age of eight and has performed in many of the world’s major cultural centers, including London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Cannes, Leipzig, Vienna, Budapest, Madrid, Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, Dublin, Munich, Caracas, Rio de Janeiro, Belgrade, Cairo, Kiev, Beijing, Shanghai, and numerous other cities.
A graduate of the Central Music School of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Nersessian later continued his education under Professor Sergei Dorensky. He graduated in 1987 with the highest honors and was immediately invited to join the Conservatory faculty. For more than three decades, he assisted Professor Dorensky and worked closely with an extraordinary circle of students, including Nikolai Lugansky, Denis Matsuev, Olga Kern, Alexander Shtarkman, Pavel Kolesnikov. He worked with Alexander Malofeev, Zlata Chochieva, Alexander Kliuchko and many others.
Nersessian has won prizes at major international competitions, including the Beethoven Competition in Vienna, the Paloma O’Shea Competition in Santander, the Tokyo Competition, and the Dublin International Piano Competition, where he received First Prize in 1991. The Irish Times wrote after his Dublin victory: “His performance brought a veritable roar of approval from the audience.” In 2005, he was awarded the title Merited Artist of the Russian Federation.
Beyond the recital stage, Nersessian is deeply engaged in collaborative music-making. By special invitation from the Kirov and Perm Ballet companies, he performed the solo piano part in Balanchine’s Ballet Imperial (to Tchaikovsky’s Second Piano Concerto) at the Kirov, Bolshoi, Châtelet, and Covent Garden theaters. He also appeared in Jerome Robbins’ ballet The Concert, or The Perils of Everybody, set to music by Chopin. His love of opera, cultivated since childhood, naturally draws him to frequent collaborations with singers and instrumentalists alike.
He has worked with ensembles and artists such as the Borodin and Glinka Quartets, the National Symphony Orchestra of Russia, Thomas Sanderling, Tugan Sokhiev, Philippe Cassard, Alexandre Lazarev, Diana Vishneva, Yulia Lezhneva, Valentin Uryupin, Maxim Emelyanychev, Lukas Geniushas and many others. Since 2013, he has served as Professor of Piano at Boston University and has given masterclasses throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and South America. He is also a regular jury member at major international piano competitions.
Yet it is Nersessian’s artistic ethos that most distinguishes him. His playing is often described as possessing an almost painful intensity of expression, a sense of lived experience brought to the point of physical presence. His performances appeal to the deepest layers of the listener’s unconscious, bypassing social and cultural defenses and speaking directly to something vulnerable and essential.
Marked by intellectual clarity, taste, and restraint from external display, his interpretations create a sense of intimacy and chamber-like refinement. Nersessian belongs to that group of artists for whom personal aesthetic truth matters more than commercial success.
“...sometimes it is more important to forget about yourself and remember that MUSICAL goals are important...” said Nersesian in one of the interviews.