Kissin was born in Moscow in October 1971 and began to play by ear and improvise on the piano at age 2. At 6, he entered the Moscow Gnessin School of Music, where he was a student of Anna Pavlovna Kantor, his only teacher. At age 10, he made his concerto debut playing Mozart’s Piano Concerto, K. 466, and gave his first solo recital in Moscow one year later. He came to international attention in March 1984 when, at age 12, he performed Chopin’s Piano Concertos 1 and 2 in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory with the Moscow State Philharmonic under Dmitri Kitayenko. This concert was recorded live by Melodiya, and a two-LP album was released the following year. 

Kissin’s first appearances outside Russia were in 1985 in Eastern Europe; he first toured Japan in 1986; and in December 1988 he performed with Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic in a New Year’s Eve concert broadcast internationally. In 1990 Kissin made his first appearance at the BBC Proms in London and made his North American debut performing both Chopin piano concertos with the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Zubin Mehta. The following week he opened Carnegie Hall’s centennial season with a spectacular debut recital, recorded live by BMG Classics. 

This season, Kissin tours North America, Europe, and Asia in a recital program featuring works by Bach, Chopin, and Shostakovich. In the fall, he visits Taipei, Seoul, and major cities across Japan. His spring tour of North America takes him to Vancouver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Washington (DC), Cleveland, Chicago, and New York, where the tour culminates with three performances at Carnegie Hall commemorating the 50th anniversary of Shostakovich’s death.  

Musical awards and tributes from around the world have been showered upon Evgeny Kissin. He received the Crystal Prize of the Osaka Symphony Hall for the Best Performance of the Year in 1986 (his first performance in Japan). In 1991 he received the Musician of the Year Prize from the Chigiana Academy of Music in Siena, Italy. He was special guest at the 1992 Grammy Awards ceremony, broadcast live to an audience estimated at over 1 billion, and three years later became Musical America’s youngest Instrumentalist of the Year. In 1997 he was the youngest recipient of the prestigious Triumph Award for his outstanding contribution to Russia’s culture, one of the highest cultural honors in the Russian Republic. Kissin was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Manhattan School of Music and received the Shostakovich Award, one of Russia’s highest musical honors; an honorary membership in the Royal Academy of Music in London; and an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Hong Kong University. 

Kissin’s newest release is an album featuring Beethoven sonatas on the Deutsche Grammophon label. His recording of works by Scriabin, Medtner, and Stravinsky (RCA Red Seal) won him a Grammy in 2006 for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without orchestra). In 2002, he was named Echo Klassik Soloist of the Year. His most recent Grammy, for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (with orchestra), was awarded in 2010 for his recording of Prokofiev’s Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 3 with the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy (EMI Classics). Kissin’s extraordinary talent inspired Christopher Nupen’s documentary film Evgeny Kissin: The Gift of Music, which was released in 2000 on video and DVD by RCA Red Seal.