Krystian Zimerman

• Pianist

About

Krystian Zimerman is an extraordinary musician whose intellectual understanding of music coupled with an exquisite musicality make him one of the finest pianists in the world.
Krystian Zimerman comes from a family with rich music-making traditions. Musicians would meet almost daily in his home to play various works, mostly chamber music. These performances afforded Mr. Zimerman a most intimate, natural, everyday contact with live music and provided an early impetus to his musical career. He made his first steps in music under his father's supervision, and at the age of 7 started working with Andrzej Jasinski, a senior lecturer at the music conservatory in Katowice, Poland. This tutorship was crowned by Mr. Zimerman's graduation, 14 years later, from the conservatory there.
Mr. Zimerman had no zest for contests, but he followed the common way of musical development for concert pianists, which brought him the highest prizes at several prestigious competitions devoted to Russian and Polish music and to the works of particular composers (Prokofiev and Beethoven). There followed the Grand Prix at the Chopin Competition of 1975, which paved the way for performances in concert halls worldwide.