Valery Sigalevitch is a Russian classical concert pianist.

Biography

Valery Sigalevitch was born in Simferopol

Simferopol

-Russian Empire and Civil War:The city was renamed Simferopol in 1784 after the annexation of the Crimean Khanate to the Russian Empire by Catherine II of Russia. The name Simferopol is derived from the Greek, Συμφερόπολις , translated as "the city of usefulness." In 1802, Simferopol became the...

, Crimea

Crimea

Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...

. His father was a painter and his mother a concert pianist and professor. He began playing the piano at the age of six and, showing prodigious talent, was accepted at the special music class of the Leningrad Conservatory

Saint Petersburg Conservatory

The N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory is a music school in Saint Petersburg. In 2004, the conservatory had around 275 faculty members and 1,400 students.-History:...

 at age seven to study with Leah Zelikhman

Leah Zelikhman

Leah Ilyinichna Zelikhman was a Russian Jewish Soviet pianist and pedagogue.After studying with Leonid Nikolayev, she has taught at the Central Special Music School of the Leningrad Conservatory for many years. Among her pupils were Grigory Sokolov, Valery Sigalevitch, and Pavel Gililov....

. He continued his studies at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory in the class of Vera Gornostayeva

Vera Gornostayeva

Vera Gornostayeva is a Russian pianist and pedagogue.Emeritus Artist of the Russian Federation, Gornostaeva is a graduate of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where her teacher was the legendary Heinrich Neuhaus....

. He finished his studies winning the first prize. In 1977 he left the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 and emigrated to Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

. For the next two years he studied with Nikita Magaloff

Nikita Magaloff

Nikita Magaloff was a Georgian-Russian pianist.He was born in Saint Petersburg to a Georgian noble family named Maghalashvili. Magaloff and his family left Russia in 1918 for Finland and then Paris, where he studied with Isidor Philipp, chair of the piano department at the Paris Conservatory...

 in Geneva

Geneva

Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

 and with Arie Vardi

Arie Vardi

Arie Vardi is an Israeli classical pianist and piano pedagogue.He is currently teaching at the Buhmann-Mehta Academy of Music in Tel Aviv, the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hanover and at the Bowdoin International Music Festival in Brunswick, Maine...

 in Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...

. His repertoire includes works by J.S. Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt

Liszt

Liszt is a Hungarian surname. Notable persons with that surname include:* Franz Liszt , Hungarian composer and pianist* Adam Liszt , father of Franz Liszt* Anna Liszt , mother of Franz Liszt...

, Brahms, Mussorgsky

Mussorgsky

Mussorgsky can refer to:*The Mussorgsky family of Russian nobility;*Modest Mussorgsky, a Russian composer belonging to that family.*Mussorgsky , a 1950 Soviet film about the composer...

, Debussy, Ravel, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev and other composers. It is, however, Chopin's and Schumann

Robert Schumann

Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....

's works which occupy a central position in his repertoire. Since commencing his concert career, he has received numerous enthusiastic reviews from critics in Europe and Israel. He has often played under the baton of Valery Gergiev

Valery Gergiev

Valery Abisalovich Gergiev is a Russian conductor and opera company director. He is general director and artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, and artistic director of the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg.- Early life :Gergiev,...

.

Valery Sigalevitch is also a dedicated connoisseur of paintings, literature, and philosophy. He currently resides in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

.

Sigalevitch is recording the complete works for solo piano by Robert Schumann (14 CDs), with release planned for 2011.
Sources=

• Biography from the album "Valery Sigalevitch spielt Chopin" Colosseum COL 0646.
• http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valery_Sigalevitch