Mikhail Kazakov
Saxophone
Valentin Malinin was revealed with brilliance to the top international scene in summer 2023 as he won the second prize at the XVII Tchaikovsky International Competition, just a few months after his victory at the 25th Scriabin International Piano Competition in Italy, where he was also awarded the special prize ‘for the best performance of Scriabin's music’.
His international recognition started since a very young age, at only 17 years old he won the Vladimir Krainev Moscow International Piano Competition and two years later he conquered the Jaén Prize, the oldest competition in Spain.
Valentin is the guest of venues and festivals such as the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, Mariinsky Theatre, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, Rheingau Musik Festival, Rafael Orozco Piano Festival, ‘Pianissimo’ International Piano Festival; he has also toured in Austria, Hungary, Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, Estonia, Lithuania and Georgia.
Valentin plays under the baton of conductors including Vladimir Spivakov, Alexander Sladkovsky, Manuel Valdivieso, Salvador Vásquez and with orchestras such as the State Academic Symphony Orchestra ‘Evgeny Svetlanov’, National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, Málaga Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica di Sanremo among many others.
Malinin graduated from the Central Music School at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory in the class Mira Marchenko. He continued his studies in Berlin with professor Kirill Gerstein in Hanns Eisler School of Music, and currently he studies at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory with professor Ksenia Knorre.
Valentin Malinin is also an award-winning composer, studying composition since childhood with Karina Baras, he has written music for piano, chamber ensembles, choir and orchestra.
In the beginning of December 2022, the pianist released a CD for Naxos with music by Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Scriabin, Granados and his own piano fantasy ‘The Pearl Fishers’, based on Nadir’s Romance from Bizet’s opera ‘Les Pêcheurs de perles’.
In April 2023, he won the Grand-Prix at the First All-Russian Composition Competition of the School-studio of Contemporary Art for the cycle for violin and piano "Memories in the twilight of a whiff”.
