Ashu has established an extraordinary ability to communicate with audiences around the world through his charismatic and emotive performance style. While his virtuosity continues to thrill listeners, his artistry reaches far beyond this demonstrating a unique personality and musical voice. He has repeatedly defied conventions by winning major international competitions traditionally won by pianists and violinists.
With the unique ability to captivate general as well as classical audiences, Ashu has shown that the concert saxophone can reach beyond stylistic categorization and to a large diversity of people. He has also shown it can attract younger and new listeners into the concert hall being a relatively fresh instrument to classical audiences.
Ashu grew up in Walnut Creek, California and moved to The Woodlands, Texas with his family at age 12. He graduated from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where he received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees, and he currently is based in Chicago.
Award-winning pianist Alexandre Moutouzkine holds a Master’s degree and postgraduate degrees from Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Solomon Mikowsky. He holds undergraduate degrees from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hannover and Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod Music Academy. He received a 2012 Distinguished Alumnus Award from Manhattan School of Music and joined its faculty in September 2013.
He has performed internationally as a soloist and chamber musician. His recent work includies chamber music concerts at the Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center’s Kaplan Penthouse; solo performances at Merkin Hall and Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center; performances of “Between the Keys,” a program of the complete solo piano works of John Corigliano; a debut at the Great Hall of the Berlin Philharmonic performing Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Berliner Symphoniker; and an appearance with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Alexandre Moutouzkine, piano
The Dallas Morning News wrote Russian-American pianist Alexandre Moutouzkine “played Brahms’ Op. 117 Intermezzi more beautifully, more movingly, than I’ve ever heard them…this was playing of heart-stopping intimacy and elegance.” Moutouzkine has claimed top prizes at the Naumburg, Cleveland, Montreal, and Arthur Rubinstein international competitions, as well as first prizes in the New Orleans, Andorra, Iturbi (Valencia), Guerrero (Madrid) and Panama international piano competitions. He was also winner of the Van Cliburn International Competition’s Special Award for Artistic Potential at age 19 and a winner of the Astral Artists 2009 National Auditions. Moutouzkine’s recital debut in London’s Wigmore Hall was hailed by International Piano magazine as “technically dazzling.” The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote of his Philadelphia recital debut that his is “a career that will matter.”
Moutouzkine has toured throughout Germany, France, Spain, Russia, Italy, and North and South America, as well as in China and Japan. As a soloist he has performed with the Berliner Symphoniker, the Israel Philharmonic and Israel Camerata, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Moscow Conservatory Symphony Orchestra, as well as with the symphony orchestras in Brno, Kharkov, Tivoli, Valencia, Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Madrid’s Radiotelevision Española, Bogotá, Louisiana, Baton Rouge, Bangor, and Shanghai. He has also performed with the national orchestras of Ukraine, Panama, Cuba, and Colombia.
Recent highlights include chamber music concerts at the Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center’s Kaplan Penthouse; solo performances at Merkin Hall and Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center; performances of “Between the Keys,” a program of the complete solo piano works of John Corigliano; a debut at the Great Hall of the Berlin Philharmonic performing Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Berliner Symphoniker; and an appearance with the Philadelphia Orchestra. His performance of Chopin Études in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory was recorded live and released on the Classical Music Archives label in Russia.
Moutouzkine holds a Master’s degree and postgraduate degrees from Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Solomon Mikowsky. He holds undergraduate degrees from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hannover and Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod Music Academy. He received a 2012 Distinguished Alumnus Award from Manhattan School of Music and joined its faculty in September 2013.
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