About this Artist
The Cleveland Plain Dealer recently pronounced pianist ANDRIUS ZLABYS "a virtuoso of fabulous technique and romantic temperament who performed like an authentic heir to the grand masters of 19th-century keyboard tradition." Mr. Zlabys was a prize winner at the 2003 Cleveland International Piano Competition, where, as a finalist, he performed with Cleveland Orchestra
Mr. Zlabys began piano studies at the age of six in his native Lithuania and studied with Laimute Jakniuniene at the Ciurlionis Art School for eleven years. In his teenage years he appeared as soloist with the major ensembles of his native country. Upon graduation from Ciurlionis at sixteen, he spent a year at the Interlochen Arts Academy studying piano with Victoria Mushkatkol and composition with Joseph DeFazio. Andrius Zlabys entered the Curtis Institute of Music in 1995 as a student of Seymour Lipkin. He graduated in the year 2000 and is currently pursuing Artist‚s Diploma program at the Cleveland Institute of Music under Sergei Babayan.
Mr. Zlabys has appeared throughout Europe and North America as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician and has performed with such eminent musicians as Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet, and Hilary Hahn. He made his Carnegie Hall debut with the New York Youth Symphony Orchestra in March 2001 and participated in the Lockenhaus Music Festival in Austria for two consecutive summers, in 2001 and 2002. In 2002 he also appeared at Germany‚s Kronberg Academy. A continuing collaborator with Mr. Kremer, Mr. Zlabys recorded the Enescu Quintet with him for the Nonesuch label; the recording was nominated for a 2003 Grammy Award.