Elena Filonova
(France)

Piano

French pianist of Russian origin, Elena Filonova started playing the piano in the USSR when she was only 3 years old. At the age of 10, she won the first prize of the Beethoven National Competition for Young Talent. At the time, she played under the keen eye of Kirill Kondrashin. When 12, she started her career as concert pianist, directed by Evgeny Mravinsky. At the Moscow Music School, she was taught by Emil Gilels and Pavel Messner at the Academic Junior Music College in Association with Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory.

Her training followed the tradition of the Heinrich Neuhaus School even though she stayed in close contact with Emil Gilels. At the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, she became Evgeny Malinine’s student. After starting her career as concert pianist in Russia, she quickly gained soloist status, being invited to play in concert halls as prestigious as Carnegie Hall in New York or the Great Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. She accompanied orchestras and chamber ensembles playing in Austria, Belgium, Canada, The Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Russia and The United States. Today, her repertoire ranges from Bach to contemporary composers.

As well as being a concert pianist, Elena Filonova has always had a passion for teaching. In Moscow, she taught at the Academic Junior Music College in Association with Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and at the Special Music School for exceptionally gifted children. Since 1990, she has been living and teaching in Paris. In 2002, during one of her master-classes, she appeared in a film entitled Un, deux, trois... Musique ("Music Maestro!") that was broadcast by the television channel Muzzik. Some of her pupils, such as Jean Dubé, have already started a brilliant professional career.

Her discography is mainly recorded under the label Melodyia. In France, she released a series of CDs featuring Giovanni Bottesini’s work with Rinat Ibraguimov, double bass soloist of the London Symphony Orchestra, piano recitals composed by Chopin, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov and Shchedrin, followed in 2004 by a CD of Tchaikovsky’s recitals (Marcal Classics MA 040701, distribution Codaex) and a selection of The Forgotten Melodies by Nikolai Medtner (AR RE-SE 2005-9, distribution Codaex). Since 2007, she has been a Calliope Artist. In 2008, she published under this label a CD of piano pieces by Edvard Grieg: 13 Lyrical Pieces together with the Piano Sonata Op. 7 (Calliope CAL9405, distributed by Harmonia Mundi).


More about Elena Vilonova:
http://www.filonova.com/EF-Bio_en.html

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