Dubbed “a major artist” by the Miami Herald and a “quiet maverick” by the Daily Telegraph, pianist Alexander Korsantia has been praised for the “clarity of his technique, richly varied tone and dynamic phrasing” (Baltimore Sun), and a “piano technique where difficulties simply do not exist” (Calgary Sun). The Boston Globe found his interpretation of his signature piece, Pictures at an Exhibition, to be “a performance that could annihilate all others one has heard.” And the Birmingham Post wrote: “his intensely responsive reading was shot through with a vein of constant fantasy, whether musing or mercurial.” 

Korsantia will be performing Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major with the Boston Philharmonic on February 22, 24, & 25 in Jordan Hall and Sanders Theatre.

Ever since winning the First Prize/Gold Medal at the Artur Rubinstein Piano Master Competition and the First Prize at the Sidney International Piano Competition, Korsantia’s career has taken him to many of the world’s major concert halls, collaborating with renowned conductors such as Christoph Eschenbach, Gianandrea Noseda, Valery Gergiev, and Paavo Järvi, with such orchestras as the Chicago Symphony, Kirov Orchestra, RAI Orchestra in Turin, The City of Birmingham Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, and Israel Philharmonic. 

In addition to his performance with the BPO, in the 2017-18 season, Korsantia will perform with the Xiamen Philharmonic, Israel Symphony,  Jerusalem Symphony and the Ingolstadt Chamber Orchestra. In addition, he will appear in recital in Taipei, Taiwan at the National Concert Hall, in Washington D.C. at the Walnut Hill School, in Greenfield Village (Michigan), in Lodz (Poland), at Jordan Hall in Boston, and in his native Tbilisi, Georgia. 

Benjamin Zander conducted the Shostakovich First Piano Concerto with Korsantia several years ago and still overflows with enthusiastic reminiscences whenever Korsantia’s name is mentioned.  

“It was an unforgettable experience playing with this great and selfless artist, so adored by his students and universally admired in the profession.  Alexander has an authenticity – an authenticity of person and of musical expression – that is so rare and that always lies at the heart of the greatest music-making.  I am overjoyed that the BPO and its audience will have the joy of experiencing his phenomenal artistry.” - Ben Zander

INTERVIEW WITH ALEXANDER KORSANTIA

(After a 30 second introduction in Hebrew, the interview is conducted entirely in English.)

Recent and upcoming seasons include appearances with the Huntsville, Pacific, Louisville, Bogota, San Juan, Jerusalem, Oregon, Vancouver, Omaha, Elgin, Mannheim, Tokyo, Louisiana, Oslo, Malaga and Israel symphony orchestras; Georgian Sinfonietta; Ingolstadt and Israel chamber orchestras; Jerusalem Camerata; Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse; Polish Radio Orchestra; and Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional in Mexico City, among others. He has been heard in the Piano Jacobins concert series in Toulouse; in Warsaw, Boston, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Vancouver, Calgary, San Francisco, Lodz; with the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg; at the Tanglewood, Newport, Stresa, Gilmore, and Verbier festivals and music series, performing solo recitals and collaborating with musicians such as Vadim Repin, Miriam Fried, Kim Kashkashian, Sergei Nakariakov and the Stradivari Quartet among others. Bel Air Music and Piano Classics are among the recording labels Mr. Korsantia has worked with. The most recent release is a collection of Beethoven (Eroica Variations), Rachmaninoff (Chopin Variations), and Copland (Piano Variations).

Born in Tbilisi, Georgia, Alexander Korsantia began his musical studies at an early age with his mother, Sventlana Korsantia, and later became a pupil of Tengiz Amiredjibi, Georgia’s foremost piano instructor. In 1992, he moved his family to the United States and joined the famed piano studio of fellow Georgian, Alexander Toradze, at Indiana University in South Bend. In 1999, he was awarded one of the most prestigious national awards, the Order of Honor, bestowed on him by then-President Eduard Shevardnadze. Korsantia resides in Boston where he is a Professor of Piano on the faculty of the New England Conservatory. Mr. Korsantia is the artistic adviser of the annual music festival “From Easter to Ascension” in Georgia.