Dubai, UAE
For the penultimate concert of the 14th InClassica International Music Festival, organised by SAMIT Event Group, Dubai will welcome one of the most accomplished musicians of his generation, celebrated Belgian pianist Denis Kozhukhin, who will be presenting a solo recital on the stage of the spectacular Dubai Opera on Sunday 20th April 2025. The concert opens with Sergei Prokofiev’s Music for Children, Op. 65, a collection of endearing, playful pieces crafted explicitly for young listeners that capture the innocence, joy, and mischievous spirit of childhood. Next, Kozhukhin will perform Alexey Shor’s Piano Sonata No. 2, a work that highlights Shor’s outstanding compositional skills. After the intermission, the second half of the concert begins with Robert Schumann’s Kinderszenen, Op. 15, directly translated to Scenes from Childhood, a suite of succinct pieces that evoke episodes of childhood innocence. The evening will conclude with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Children’s Album, Op. 39, a cycle of imaginative and characterful works for children studying the piano.
A pianist of exceptional technique, emotional depth, and sophistication, Denis Kozhukhin has gained significant recognition through his powerful performances, establishing himself as one of the most accomplished musicians of his generation.
Highlights of the last two seasons include performances with the San Francisco Symphony, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Frankfurt’s hr-Sinfonieorchester, BBC Symphony, Orchestre National de Belgique, Danish National Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, and WDR Sinfonieorchester. He has worked with conductors such as Rafael Payare, Alain Altintoglu, Cristian Macelaru, Hannu Lintu, Dalia Stasevska, and Santtu-Matias Rouvali, among others.
Kozhukhin’s 2023/24 season includes returns to the Oslo Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, Washington’s National Symphony, and Orquestra Simfónica de Barcelona, alongside debuts with the Dallas Symphony, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, and Melbourne Symphony. Denis will also perform recitals and chamber music at the Pierre Boulez Saal, Elbphilharmonie, Wigmore Hall, Vienna’s Konzerthaus, and Zurich’s Tonhalle. Since winning the Queen Elizabeth Competition in 2010, Denis has performed with the London Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, and Staatskapelle Berlin. A sought-after recitalist and chamber musician, Kozhukhin regularly appears at prominent music festivals including Verbier, Gstaad, Grafenegg, Dresden, Intonations Festival, Tsinandali, Klavier Ruhr, Lanaudiere, and Jerusalem Music Festivals, as well as the BBC Proms.
As a Pentatone recording artist, his discography spans works by Haydn, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Ravel, and Gershwin.
A graduate of the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid under the guidance of Dmitri Bashkirov and Claudio Martinez-Mehner, Kozhukhin further honed his skills at the Piano Academy at Lake Como, where he received advice from notable pianists such as Fou Ts'ong, Stanislav Ioudenitch, Peter Frankl, Boris Berman, Charles Rosen, Andreas Staier, and Kirill Gerstein in Stuttgart.
