Rising Stars Beethoven and Sosztakovics – Igor Levit (Piano) Festival Theatre Beethoven: Sonata in G major, op. 79 Shostakovich: 24 Preludes, op. 34 Beethoven: Sonata in C major (“Waldstein”), op. 53 Impressive artistic maturity; smart and clear playing; the most delicate and refined nuances, a sonorous piano sound; a balance of precision and artistic freedom: these are just a few snippets from reviews which have followed performances by Igor Levit. All essentially say the same thing, albeit in somewhat different ways: that this young musician, born in 1987, belongs among the very best pianists around today. It is for this reason that the European Concert Hall Organisation has chosen to present him to audiences in large and prestigious concert venues under the auspices of its Rising Stars programme. The short but highly eventful career of this Russian-German musician bears an uncanny resemblance to that of two international violin stars: Vadim Repin and Maxim Vengerov. Like them, Levit spent his childhood in a large Soviet city – in his case Gorky, now once again Nizhny Novgorod, similarly to his older colleague Vladimir Ashkenazy or his young contemporary, the trumpeter Sergei Nakariakov. At the age of eight, he settled with his family in Hanover, where he attended the University of Music for ten years as a pupil of one of the most renowned teachers, Karl-Heinz Kämmerling. As the youngest competitor at the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in 2005, he brought home four awards, and also took first prize at the International Piano Academy Competition in Hamamatsu, Japan. To date, he has performed with the London Philharmonic, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden and the English Chamber Orchestra.