Faculty & Guest Performances, Ticketed

Polina Osetinskaya, piano: The Art of Transcription

In partnership with the World Chess Hall of Fame

Tickets coming soon!
$25 Adult
$20 Wash U faculty/staff with ID
$5 students and youth
Free Wash U students with ID

Biography:

Internationally acclaimed pianist Polina Osetinskaya began her career at the age of 6 and was soon acclaimed as a wunderkind in the former Soviet Union at the same time as contemporary and frequent collaborator Maxim Vengerov.

At age 7, she entered the Central School of Music of the Moscow Conservatoire and later continued her studies at the Leningrad Conservatoire under the teacher Marina Wolf and later on at the Moscow Conservatory under the famous Vera Gornostaeva.

Osetinskaya has performed on most major stages, including Vienna’s Musikverein, London’s Barbican Center and Rome’s Teatro Argentina, as well as in Italy, Germany, Poland, the United States, Russia, and Israel. She has appeared with music Aeterna, Mariinsky Orchestra, Evgeny Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra and Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. Last season, she performed with Brno Philharmonic Orchestra, Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, and National Chamber Orchestra of Moldova. Osetinskaya has worked with conductors such as Teodor Currentzis,  Andrei Boreyko, Tugan Sokhiev, Laurent Petijerar, Yan Pascal Tortelier, and Alexander Sladkovsky.

In recital, Osetinskaya is known for her experimental programs, including works by contemporary composers and juxtaposing them with traditional classical works. She is also very much at home with the post-avant-garde composers such as Valentin Silvestrov, Leonid Desyatnikov, and Arvo Pärt, to name but a few, and presented a few projects as an actress and pianist at the same time.

She has collaborated with many recording companies including Quartz, Naxos, Sony Music, Bel Air, and Melodiya.

Osetinskaya has been awarded the Maly Triumph Prize and wrote her autobiography Farewell, Sadness, an account of her childhood years, which became a bestseller.

In 2023-2024, Osetinskaya made several solo debuts at the Berlin Philharmonic, the National Gallery London and the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg in unaccompanied Bach. She also performed in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Israel, Cyprus, the United States, and South America. Onstage partners have included Teodor Currentzis, Laurent Petitgirard, Vladimir Spivakov, Andrey Boreyko, Dmitry Liss, and Yan Pascal Tortelier.

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Polina has repeatedly expressed her pacifist position. In this regard, her concerts in Russia were canceled by the government.