Biography
The Russian pianist Vyacheslav Gryaznof—transliterated at times as Gryaznov or Gryzaznoff—has earned recognition for creating transcriptions and arrangements that continue the grand virtuoso lineage. His professional path took shape in his homeland and has remained rooted there, with notable activity in Japan and the United States, though he has not participated extensively in Britain’s active circuit for Russian performers. Born in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on Sakhalin Island along Russia’s Pacific shoreline, he began piano lessons in early childhood; although his parents had no musical background, they judged his promise sufficient to abandon their Far Eastern circumstances and relocate the family to Moscow for advanced training. He completed secondary studies at the Central Music School attached to the Moscow State Conservatory, then earned undergraduate honors at the Conservatory itself before pursuing graduate work there. Upon finishing those studies he joined the institution’s piano faculty as an assistant professor. In 2016 he entered Yale University’s Artist Diploma program under Boris Berman, and since 2012 he has served annually as visiting professor of piano at Kurashiki Sakuyo University of Science and Art in Japan. During his teenage years he collected multiple Russian competition awards; at fifteen he captured two first-place medals at the Nikolai Rubinstein International Competition in Moscow, an achievement that also brought a debut recital in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. At seventeen he performed in Denmark and Italy, and he has since appeared across Europe, the former Soviet republics, Africa, Japan, and the United States while maintaining an active schedule of Russian recitals and orchestral engagements. Gryaznof has composed more than thirty arrangements and transcriptions, among them Rhapsody in Black, drawn from themes in Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess. Several of these pieces feature on his first solo recording, Russian Transcriptions, issued by the Steinway & Sons label in 2018.
Albums
