Michail Lifits

Pianist Michail Lifits scored a series of major competition wins in the late 2000s decade and parlayed them into a flourishing international career as a solo player and chamber musician. He has been a popular concert attraction around Europe and the U.S., also appearing regularly at summer festivals. Lifits was born on September 25, 1982, in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, then part of the Soviet Union. He took up the piano at age five. At 13, he made his debut playing the Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18, with the National Philharmonic of Uzbekistan. Lifits moved west for studies at the Hochschule für Musik, Drama und Medien in Hannover, Germany, studying with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling and Bernd Goetzke and has lived in Hannover ever since. He later worked with Boris Petrushansky at the Accademia Pianistica Incontri col Maestro in Imola, Italy. A series of important competition wins put him on bookers' radar: these included prizes at the international piano competition Rina Sala Gallo in Monza, Italy, in 2006, the Hilton Head International Piano Competition in the U.S. in 2009, and the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition in Bolzano, Italy, that same year. Lifits has played recitals at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, the Salle Cortot in Paris, and many other major European halls. His orchestral engagements include those with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Thüringen Philharmonie Gotha, and the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra in South Carolina. Lifits is a frequent guest at festivals and has served as an accompanist to various world-class musicians, including violinist Vilde Frang, cellist Nicolas Altstaedt, and violist Nils Mönkemeyer. Lifits is also a member of a piano trio with violinist Corina Belcea and cellist Antoine Lederlin. Signing an exclusive contract with the Decca label, Lifits has become a prestigious recording artist. He has released solo albums of music by Mozart, Schubert, and Shostakovich, and joined Frang on the Warner Classics label in 2019 for a recital of works by Paganini and Schubert. Lifits is a Steinway artist.
© James Manheim /TiVo