Ksenia Bashmet is a Russian pianist. She was born in 1980 in Moscow into a family of musicians.
She studied at the Gnessin Moscow Special School of Music with Elena Efrussi and later Tatiana Zelikman, then at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory in the class of Professor Lev Naumov. She also completed postgraduate study at the conservatory, including accompanist training with Associate Professor Irina Kirillova and chamber ensemble studies with Professor Tigran Alikhanov.
Bashmet became a diploma recipient at the International Festival “Virtuosos of the Year 2000” in Saint Petersburg in 1994. She later won prizes at the 1st S. I. Taneyev International Chamber Ensemble Competition in Kaluga in 2002 and the 18th International Chamber Ensemble Competition in Caltanissetta, Italy, in 2003. She also received special prizes at the Yuri Bashmet International Viola Competition for Best Accompanist in 2010, 2018, and 2023, and for Outstanding Musical Accompaniment in 2013, as well as the youth award Triumph in 2004 and the Galileo Prize “Golden Staff” in Florence in 2005.
She has appeared at international festivals in Germany, France, Switzerland, the United States, and Italy, and at major Russian music festivals including December Evenings of Sviatoslav Richter, Moscow Autumn, Ars Longa, Vivacello, Vivarte, Stars of the White Nights, and others. She is also a regular participant in Yuri Bashmet’s festivals in Moscow, Sochi, Yaroslavl, Rostov-on-Don, Chelyabinsk, and Khabarovsk.
Bashmet tours in Russia and abroad. Her performances have taken place in leading venues including the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, halls of the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic, New Tokyo Opera City Hall, the Musikverein in Vienna, Beethoven Hall in Bonn, and the Tonhalle in Zurich. As a soloist she has performed with well-known Russian and foreign orchestras and collaborated with many distinguished soloists and conductors.
Since 2016 she has been artistic director of classical music concerts at the Bashmet Center. She is also the author and artistic director of the musical-literary program series Musica con Text, created with the participation of prominent actors. Since 2021 she has taught chamber ensemble at the Moscow Conservatory, and since 2015 she has given master classes throughout Russia within the educational project “Yuri Bashmet to Young Talents of Russia.” She also regularly serves on competition juries.
She has released two discs on the Quartz label; the second, Piano Collection of music by Michael Nyman, was named “disc of the week” on Classic FM in the United Kingdom. She also took part in recordings of Vsevolod Zaderatsky’s 24 Preludes and Fugues, a jubilee disc for Alexander Tchaikovsky on the Melodiya label, and music for the films The Brothers Karamazov and Bolshoi. Bashmet has given first performances of works by composers including Artyom Vasilyev, Elena Langer, Marina Kovalyova, Alexander Tchaikovsky, Eldar Barkhalov, Pavel Karmanov, Enri Lolashvili, and Kuzma Bodrov.