Aspire - Indiana University South Bend

Toradze Pianist
WINS GOLD
By Naomi Keeler // Photography Michele Morgan-Dufour
Toradze Studio pianist Nikita Abrosimov was awarded the
gold medal in the Artist Division at the 55th World Piano
Competition in Cincinnati, Ohio. Held annually for over
50 years, the World Piano Competition attracts aspiring
musicians from all over the world to compete for prize
money and worldwide performance opportunities. Pianists
undergo a rigorous series of auditions in pursuit of the gold
medal. Included in Nikita’s prize package are $10,000
in prize money and a debut recital in New York at Lincoln
Center’s Alice Tully Hall in spring of 2013.
No stranger to music or competition, 21-year-old Abrosimov
has played the piano since six years of age and won four
other international piano competitions: Kiev, Ukraine
(2000); Paris, France (2002); Cortemilia, Italy (2003),
and Nizhny Novgorod, Russia (2004). So what is special
about this particular competition? “On the one hand, this
competition was an important moment in my professional
life,” says Abrosimov. “It was the result of a long and hard
work with Professor Toradze and with my Russian teacher
Natalia Fish. On the other hand, if we speak about lifelong
career, winning or losing a competition does not mean
much. So I need to keep working.”
For this dedicated Russian pianist, studying with
Martin Endowed Professor in Piano Alexander Toradze and
Lecturer in Piano Ketevan Badridze as part of the Toradze
Piano Studio “has affected the way I practice; therefore
it affects the way I play … most of the work I have to do
by myself, meaning that I have to find my own way of
performing music.”
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