Kirill Gerstein, Piano

Kirill Gerstein, declares the Boston Globe, is “on the fast track to a major career, and he deserves to be.” After high-level training in Russia and the United States — including a stint studying jazz improvisation — and a promising early performance career, Gerstein received the Gilmore Foundation Artist Award in 2010. This incredibly exclusive prize is bestowed on only one classical pianist every four years and put him in the company of such luminaries as Leif Ove Andsnes and Piotr Anderszewski.

Gerstein brings freshness and intelligence to his playing of the two vignette-based masterpieces that anchor his Duke Performances program: Schumann’s dazzling Carnaval, inspired by a rogue’s gallery of masked revelers, and Mussorgsky’s iconic Pictures at an Exhibition, based on an art gallery of Russian paintings.