Evgeny Kissin

Evgeny Kissin was born in 1971 in Moscow

Kissin was born in Moscow in 1971 to a Jewish family. His father, Igor Otman, was an engineer, and his mother, Emilia Kissina, is a piano teacher.

At 6 he entered the Gnessin Music School in Moscow, where Anna Kantor became his only piano teacher. At 10 he made his debut playing a Mozart concerto with the Ulyanovsk orchestra. At 12 he recorded both Chopin piano concertos with the Moscow Philharmonic.

His first concerts outside Russia came in 1985. In 1988 he played a Tchaikovsky concerto with Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic at its New Year's Eve concert. In 1990 he made his North American debut with the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta, and in 1997 he gave the first solo piano recital at the Proms in London.

He became a British citizen in 2002 and an Israeli citizen in 2013. He composes music, recites Yiddish and Russian poetry, and published an autobiography in 2018 and a Yiddish book in 2019. He opposed the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and Russia declared him a foreign agent in July 2024.

In 2017 he married Karina Arzumanova, a childhood friend. The couple lives in Prague.