Biography
The pianist Elena Bashkirova once said, “Chamber music is music’s soul,” and this belief is evident in her work as a soloist, accompanist, ensemble musician, and program planner. Her approach to all aspects of music is one of empathetic collaboration and communication.
Highlights of the 2026/27 season include orchestral engagements with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Jan Willem de Vriend, the Cologne Chamber Orchestra under Christoph Poppen, the Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie under Marzena Diakun, the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra under Marios Papadopoulos, and the SWR Symphony Orchestra under François-Xavier Roth.
Chamber music and recital appearances will take Elena Bashkirova to the Chamber Music Hall of the Berlin Philharmonie, the Salle Cortot in Paris, the Manana Doijashvili XXVIII International Festival “New Year Music Celebrations” in the Grand Hall of the Tbilisi State Conservatory, the Cartagena Music Festival, and the Konzerthaus Blaibach, among other venues.
Bashkirova comes from a Russian musical dynasty going back generations. Born in Moscow, she began her studies at the age of 15 in the class of her father, the legendary piano pedagogue Dmitry Bashkirov. Together with violinist Gidon Kremer, with whom she has often performed as a duo and has made several recordings, Elena Bashkirova left the Soviet Union in 1978 and moved to Paris. She has been influenced by her work with conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Sergiu Delipidate, and Michael Gielen. Since 1992, she has lived in Berlin with her husband, Daniel Barenboim.
Bashkirova is Artistic Director of the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival, which she founded in 1998. The festival takes place each year in September and has become a pillar of Israel’s cultural life, bringing together outstanding soloists from around the world. In addition, the widely acclaimed Intonations Festival has taken place in April of each year since 2012 in Berlin’s Jewish Museum. The festival found its new home in Berlin’s Kühlhaus in 2023. Together with musicians from these festivals, Elena Bashkirova performs regularly in the world’s most important chamber music series, including summer festivals such as the Lucerne Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival, the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest, and the Beethovenfest in Bonn. Numerous recordings document the highlights of programs conceived by Bashkirova for various chamber music groupings.
The repertoire for piano and voice is of particular importance to Bashkirova. The list of singers with whom she performs as a duo includes Anna Netrebko, Olga Peretyatko, Dorothea Röschmann, René Pape, and Robert Holl.
Bashkirova’s recording of two Tchaikovsky cycles, “The Seasons” and “Album for Children”, received the ICMA award in the category “solo instrument” in 2017. Her complete recording of Antonin Dvorak’s “Poetic Tone Pictures” op. 85 was released in October 2020. She also recorded an album with a selection of Mozart works under the title "Mozart: Sonatas & Fantasies", which was released in November 2022.
In 2018, Elena Bashkirova received the Ruhr Piano Festival Prize and was awarded an honorary doctoral degree by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Elena Bashkiroav is President of the Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Foundation in Leipzig.
This biography is to be reproduced without any changes, omissions or additions, unless expressly authorized by artist management.
Representation
For Spain, Portugal and Latin America:
Ibermúsica
Carolina Escárate
E: carolina@ibermusica.es