Pianist Polina Osetinskaya's performance career has consisted of two main phases. The first phase was "The Wunderkind", i.e. the "wonder child", a name for a child prodigy, and a title that amuses Polina. This is when a very talented, very young Polina performed in numerous important sold-out concert halls and venues, standing room only, often in front of television cameras, to large audiences who were amazed by such a brilliant young virtuosa. The second and current phase is, in essence, a process of deepening the first phase. Polina now performs to sophisticated audiences to whom she delivers a rare musical lyricism, a mature, expressive
individuality, all presented with a powerful technique.
Polina Osetinskaya began to study the piano at the age of five. When she was six, she gave her concert debut at the Grand Hall of the Vilnius Conservatory. At age seven, she was accepted by the Central Music School of the Moscow Conservatory. From that point on, the young Polina traveled and performed in the company of her father, who assumed the role of agent and promoter. They embarked upon a non-stop concert tour throughout the former Soviet Union, with sold-out halls, television broadcasts, adoring fans, and repeated standing ovations. By age 11, Polina had performed an incredible number of 1,000 orchestral and solo concerts.
During these years, Polina was the most famous child prodigy in Russia. Her performing life as well as her relationship with her father were portrayed by the media as a kind of soap opera, especially after thirteen year-old Polina decided to leave her father's guidance and management.
She then began a serious study of music at the Music Lyceum of the St. Petersburg Conservatory with eminent piano pedagogue Marina Wolf, later at the Moscow Conservatory with distinguished professor Vera Gornostaeva, and with others whose musical provenance stems from Bella Davidovich, Heinrich Neuhaus, Richter, and Shostakovich. Polina also resumed an active concert schedule while a student at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, performing two concert tours of Japan.
Polina is currently a season performer each year with two of the world's largest and most prestigious orchestras, the Timirkanov St. Petersburg Philharmonic, and the Svetlanov Moscow State Academic Orchestra. Sought after as a distinguished orchestral soloist, she has performed with the Tokyo Philharmonic, Weimar Opera Orchestra, Spivakov's "Moscow Virtuosi", the New Russia Orchestra, Hungary's "Ferenc Liszt" Orchestra, the Polish National Orchestra, and many other major orchestras world-wide. She has collaborated onstage with outstanding conductors such as Saulius Sondeckis, Vassily Sinaisky, Andrey Boreyko, Gerd Albrecht, BBC Laureate Jan Pascal Tortelier, Vladimir Verbitsky, Alexander Dmitriev, and Thomas Sanderling. Polina is a frequent guest performer in many music Festivals around the world, including "Du Wallonie" (Brussels), "Mainly Mozart" (USA), "Chopin Festival" (USA) ,"Starts of White Nights" and "December Nights" (Russia). She was an honored recipient of the national "Triumphe" Award for her outstanding achievements and contribution to Russian art and culture.
In 2008, two milestones were reached: Polina completed her autobiographical memoir, "Farewell, Sadness", which became a best-seller, and she also gave birth to her daughter, Alexandra.
Polina is a master at building unique themes for her solo recital programs, using intriguing repertoire selections that are often unconventional and paradoxical. Expanding the standard repertoire, her concert selections include works by modern composers as well, often combining
their compositions with canonical works. "Modern music does not only continue the legacy of the old music, but it also helps us rediscover the beauty and the meaning of the old music, which has been tarnished by years of blind archival admiration and unimaginative, often soulless interpretations."Polina has a vast repertoire of over 40 piano concertos and the most difficult solo and chamber programs spanning the Baroque to the 21st Century. She is also sought by Russia's leading post avant-garde/post-modernism composers to showcase their works, such as Valentin Silvestrov, Leonid Desyatnikov, Vladimir Martinov, Georg Pelecis, and Pavel Karmanov. She has produced many recordings which can be found on Naxos, Sony Music, Bel Air, as well
as other well-known labels.
"Polina Osetinskaya played with a 'jeweler's precision'. Through her finely distilled interpretation, the composer appears as a philosopher and intellectual... and just because of such thoughtful and critical interpretations offered by Polina Osetinskaja the music of Shostakovich is still current, and even modern art." - "Kommersant, St. Petersburg, Russia"*
"Polina Osetinskaya knew just how to wrench every bit of angst from the music. By the time the final Chopin Prelude in D minor reached its violent conclusion, the devastating impact of Osetinskaya's powerful performance was indescribable....Sun Sentinel, USA
