Valery Pyasetsky is a Russian pianist and music teacher, born on March 12, 1961 in Moscow. He began studying music at the age of five on his father's initiative. His first teacher was Anna Artobolevskaya, later an Honored Artist of the Russian Federation.
From 1968 to 1979 he studied at the Central Music School of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where he was trained in the class of Anna Artobolevskaya. From 1979 to 1984 he was a student at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, studying with Professor A. Nasedkin, and he graduated with distinction. From 1986 to 1988 he completed postgraduate assistant training at the Moscow Conservatory.
After graduating from the conservatory, Pyasetsky began working at the Central Music School. In 2001 he became head of the special piano department. From 1994 he also taught at the special piano department of the Moscow Conservatory, beginning as an assistant and receiving his own class in 1999. He became an associate professor in 1999 and a professor of the special piano department in 2009.
His students have taken part in music festivals in Europe, Asia, and America, and many of them have performed with symphony and chamber orchestras under prominent conductors including Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Vladimir Spivakov, Yuri Bashmet, Mikhail Pletnev, Alexander Sladkovsky, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Alexander Rudin, Yuri Simonov, Saulius Sondeckis, and Valentin Uryupin. One of his best-known students is Denis Matsuev, winner of the 11th International Tchaikovsky Competition. Other distinguished students include Daniil Kharitonov, Ivan Bessonov, Dinara Klinton, A. Aristov, and A. Sinchuk.
Pyasetsky's students have won prizes more than 130 times at international and all-Russian competitions, including Eurovision Young Musicians, the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians, the Vladimir Krainev International Competition, the Chopin Competition, the television competition The Nutcracker on the Kultura channel, and the Young Musician competition of the Kultura television channel. He has also served on the jury of many competitions, including the Grand Piano Competition, Astana Piano Passion, and the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians.
In 2000 he was awarded the title Honored Artist of Russia. On April 5, 2016, he was appointed director of the Central Music School of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory. In 2019, on his initiative, the annual All-Russian competition for young musicians Constellation was established. In 2024 he received the Order For Merit in Culture and Art.