Lev Bakirov was born in Perm in 2010. He is currently studying at the Central Music School – Academy of Performing Arts under the guidance of Professor Valery Pyasetsky.
He has received awards at international and Russian national competitions:
2021
- He won the Blue Bird All-Russian Television Competition for Young Talents and reached the final of the Russian National Orchestra’s Grand All-Russian Selection.
2023
- He was awarded the Grand Prix at the inaugural Sergei Rachmaninoff International Competition for Young Pianists in Novgorod, where he also received a special prize ‘for outstanding performance’ from the piano manufacturer Yangtze River.
- He was awarded the Grand Prix at the Central Music School’s International Competition ‘A Tribute to Sergei Rachmaninoff’.
2024
- He was awarded the Grand Prix at the fourth Grand Piano Competition, an international competition for young pianists held in Moscow.
In 2024, Bakirov received the BraVo International Professional Music Award in the ‘Discovery of the Year’ category. He is a recipient of scholarships from the Vladimir Spivakov Foundation, the Ivetta Voronova New Names Charitable Foundation and the Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation in Switzerland. He has taken part in the educational academies held as part of the 13th and 14th Yuri Bashmet Winter International Arts Festivals in Sochi. His festival appearances have included the Vladimir Spivakov Foundation’s Moscow Meets Friends International Festival, Crescendo, Stars on Baikal, the Denis Matsuev Festival in Suzdal, Summer Evenings in Yelabuga, the Alexander Scriabin Festival in Moscow, the Emil Gilels Moscow Piano Music Festival and the Slavianski Bazaar in Vitebsk International Festival of Arts. He has also performed at the concert celebrating the Day of Slavic Written Language and Culture on Red Square in Moscow, and at ‘The First’ gala concert at the Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall in Yerevan, presented as part of the Days of Russian Culture in Armenia. He has given solo recitals in Japan, with performances in Tokyo and Nagoya, as well as in Belarus, Serbia, where he performed in Belgrade, and China. In 2021, he performed at Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Villa Senar and also gave a solo recital in Biel, Switzerland.
As a soloist, Bakirov has performed with the Svetlanov State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia, the Mariinsky Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra, the Russian National Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Novaya Rossiya State Symphony Orchestra, the State Symphony Orchestra of the Republic of Tatarstan, the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra and many other Russian ensembles, including orchestras affiliated with a number of regional philharmonic institutions, as well as the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra. Among the conductors with whom he has collaborated are Dmitri Jurowski, Stanislav Kochanovsky, Zaurbek Gugkaev, Yuri Tkachenko, Ivan Nikiforchin, Alexei Rubin, Fedor Beznosikov, Nikolai Khondzinsky, Clément Nonciaux, Oleg Khudyakov and many others.
