ALEXANDER GADJIEV (Italy / Slovenia) – CLOSING CONCERT

Internationally acclaimed pianist Alexander Gadjiev, known for his technical brilliance and artistic depth, will conclude this year’s Prečkanja – Sconfinamenti Festival with a solo recital. 

Alexander Gadjiev, piano

The piano star Alexander Gadjiev is the embodiment of supranational identity. Born into an international family in Gorizia, a city that unites two countries, he soon developed an extraordinary ability to absorb and reinterpret different musical styles and languages. As a soloist, he first performed with an orchestra at the age of nine and gave his first solo piano recital at ten. At seventeen, he graduated with honors and won Italy’s most prestigious piano competition for young talents, the Premio Venezia. From there, he went on to triumph at some of the world’s most important piano competitions: he gained international attention in 2015 by winning both first prize and the audience award at the prestigious triennial Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in Japan, and again in 2017, when the jury was chaired by the legendary Martha Argerich. In 2018, he won the prestigious Monte Carlo World Piano Masters competition. Between 2019 and 2022, he was a BBC New Generation Artist, and in the meantime, in the summer of 2021, he won first prize and several other awards at the Sydney International Piano Competition, followed by second place and the prize for best sonata performance at the 18th Chopin Competition in Warsaw.

The Sydney competition opened the doors of the greatest stages in the southern hemisphere – thus, he concluded 2022 in grand style with a tour of over three months across Australia and the Far East, and in 2023 performed a tour in Japan. Recently, he performed with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra at the Musikverein in Vienna and in Florence with the orchestra and choir of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino under the baton of the renowned Zubin Mehta.

"Festival Prečkanja – Sconfinamenti, which I imagine as a hybrid plant that has taken on various characteristics from different environments and is ready to survive even in the most extreme conditions, is organized and performed across two neighboring countries, particularly closely between the twin cities of Nova Gorica and Gorizia, and more broadly in the Italian and Slovenian cultural space. The festival offers outstanding evening concerts by renowned and also emerging young musicians, as well as educational programs. As the old Latin saying goes, "Ars longa, vita brevis", we too wish to highlight and embrace the knowledge of masters from older and younger generations, as well as the fresh approaches of young performers who impress us with their commitment to bringing to light the extraordinary richness of the world’s and our own musical heritage. This year’s program will focus on the piano, an instrument capable of synthesizing the most diverse sensitivities and possessing an almost infinite range of expression.

At the close of the festival, I will personally take part in what is a particularly dear "first occasion" to me: a recital at the Teatro Verdi in Gorizia, featuring works by Beethoven, Debussy, Bartók, Schumann and, to conclude, Rachmaninoff’s famous Second Sonata. We look forward to welcoming you!" Address by Alexander Gadjiev, Artistic Director of the Festival Prečkanja – Sconfinamenti

Free entrance.