Anna Kravtchenko

Kravtchenko began learning piano at age five; she recalls "the great joy of being able to construct a phrase in a certain way and discovering unique sounds".[1] She studied in Italy at the Accademia Pianistica Internazionale in Imola.[2][3][4]

In 1991, she won first prize at the international competition Concertino di Praga.[2] A year later, at age 16, she won the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition, which had not given its First Prize to any pianist for five years. She since had an international concert career, and recorded works by Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt for Decca.[3]

Kravtchenko performed Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini at the Berliner Philharmonie in 1994. In 1995, she toured Germany and Austria with the Israel Chamber Orchestra, playing Shostakovich's First Piano Concerto in Vienna in the hall of the Musikverein.[2] In 2001, when she played Chopin's Piano Concerto in F minor with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Walter Weller, Geoffrey Norris of The Telegraph said she played it "in a way that thoroughly warmed the heart and thrilled the senses", and explained:

She incorporated Chopin's decorative writing into a vision of the concerto that had cohesion, vitality and fluency. The poetic reverie of the slow movement was set against the glistening roulades of the outer ones in a performance that, with justification, showed complete confidence in what it wanted to say, and knew how to express it eloquently.[5]

Kravtchenko won the International Web Concert Hall Competition in 2006.[2] Since 2013, she has taught piano at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, in the Italian-speaking Swiss canton of Ticino.[3]

• Anna Kravtchenko at AllMusic
• Cultura e spettacolo del Comune di Venezia
• Fondazione Concorso Pianistico Internazionale Ferruccio Busoni
• Universal Music