Alexander Toradze
Martin Endowed Professor of Piano
In August 2007, Alexander Toradze performed in the London Proms with the London Symphony Orchestra and Valery Gergiev. The reviewer wrote, "the instrument... in his hands becomes as varied and expressive as a full orchestra. Toradze made light of the concerto's ferocious virtuosity, bringing sumo weight to the left hand while persuading the fingers of the right to dance with mercurial velocity. The audience roared approval."
On September 27, 28, and 30, Mr. Toradze will perform in Pittsburgh's Heintz Hall presenting Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto with the Pittsburgh Symphony under conductor Pascal Tortelier.
Alexander Toradze is universally recognized as a masterful virtuoso in the grand Romantic tradition. He has enriched the Great Russian pianistic heritage with his own unorthodox interpretative conceptions, deeply poetic lyricism, and intensely emotional excitement. Mr. Toradze's recent recording of all five Prokofiev concertos with Valery Gergiev and the Kirov Orchestra for the Philips label, is acclaimed by critics as definitive. His recording of Prokofiev's Piano Concert No. 3 was named by International Piano Quarterly as "historically the best on record" (from among over seventy recordings). Other highly successful recordings have included Scriabin's Prometheus: The Poem of Fire, with the Kirov Orchestra, Valery Gergiev conducting as well as recital albums of the works of Mussorgsky, Stravinsky, Ravel and Prokofiev for the Angel/EMI label.
Alexander Toradze
Highlights from Mr. Toradze's international appearances this season alone include the Berlin Philharmonic, performing Stravinsky's Piano Concerto, touring with the Kirov Orchestra in Austria and Japan, the NHK and Super World Orchestra in Tokyo, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, along with additional engagements in Germany, Sweden, Italy and Hungary. In the United States, Mr. Toradze will appear with the Cleveland, Detroit, and Cincinnati Orchestras, amongst others. Mr. Toradze continuously appears with the world's leading orchestras, including, in North America, those of New York, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Minnesota, Houston, Montreal, Toronto, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Seattle and Washington D. C. Overseas, he appears regularly with the Kirov Orchestra, La Scala Philharmonic, Bayerische Rundfunk Orchester, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, City of Birmingham Symphony, London's Symphony, Philharmonic and Philharmonia Orchestras, Israel Philharmonic, and the orchestras in Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Italy. In June 2003 he made is triumphant debut with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Jurowski.
Additionally, Mr. Toradze regularly takes part in many summer music festivals including those of Salzburg, the White Nights in St. Petersburg, London's BBC Proms concerts, Edinburgh, Rotterdam, Mikkeli (Finland), the Hollywood Bowl, Saratoga, and Ravinia.
Alexander Toardze and Valery Gergiev
Born in Tbilisi, Georgia, Alexander Toradze graduated from the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow and soon became a professor there. In 1983, he moved permanently to the United States. In 1991, he was appointed as the Martin Endowed Professor of Piano at Indiana University South Bend, where he has created a teaching environment that is unparalleled in its unique concept. The members of the multi-national Toradze Piano Studio have developed into a worldwide touring ensemble that has gathered great critical acclaim on an international level. In the 2002-2003 season, the Studio appeared in New York performing the complete cycle of Bach solo concerti as well as Scriabin's complete sonata cycle. The Studio has also performed projects detailing the piano and chamber works of Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Dvorak and Stravinsky in Rome, Venice and Ravenna, Italy, the Ruhr Klavier Festival and Berlin Festivals in Germany, and in the United States in Boston, Chicago and Washington, D.C.
The Toradze Piano Studio
