Ignat Solzhenitsyn is an American and Russian pianist and conductor. Born in Moscow in 1972, he began studying music at age 11 at the Marlboro music school, where Luis Batlle taught him piano, composition, and counterpoint. He also studied with Rudolf Serkin, and later studied piano with Maria Curcio in London and Gary Graffman at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia.
His first major musical experience was hearing Dmitri Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony in concert when he was nine. Since 1998, he has been principal conductor of the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra. He is also principal guest conductor of the Moscow Symphony Orchestra and performs as both a pianist and conductor.
Solzhenitsyn is an Avery Fisher Award recipient and has appeared at festivals including December Evenings in Moscow and the Mstislav Rostropovich Festival in Samara. He lives in New York and is president and curator of the Alexander Solzhenitsyn Center at Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts.