Victor Chestopal is a Finnish pianist of Russian origin. He was born on July 23, 1975, in Moscow, Soviet Union, and has been a citizen of Finland since 1997.
He studied at the Gnessin School and the Central Music School from 1984. His teachers there included Tamara Bobovich, Alexander Mndoyants, Professor Lev Vlasenko, and Mikhail Pletnev. At the age of twelve he made his orchestral debut with the Saratov Philharmonic, performing Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 1, and in June 1989 he gave his first solo recital in the Rachmaninoff Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.
Since 1990 he has lived and worked in Helsinki. He received his higher musical education at the Sibelius Academy, where he studied piano with Professor Erik T. Tawaststjerna and completed a master's degree in 2001. From 1992 to 1997 he also studied with Lazar Berman at the Incontri col Maestro Academy in Imola, Italy, and at the Liszt Academy in Weimar, Germany.
Chestopal has won prizes at a number of international competitions. In 1990 he won first prize at the Carlo Soliva International Music Competition in Casale Monferrato, Italy. In 1993 he won first prize at the 3rd International Città di Cantù competition in Italy. In 1994 he received second prize at the Maj Lind Piano Competition in Helsinki, and in 1995 he was a finalist in the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. In 1997 he received a special prize at the Van Cliburn Competition in Fort Worth, United States.
His active international performing career began in 1991 with an appearance in the Vatican at a concert for Pope John Paul II, where he performed Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Russian National Orchestra conducted by Mikhail Pletnev. He later appeared in solo programs and with leading orchestras and conductors in Russia, the United States, England, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Finland, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Serbia, in halls including the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Salle Gaveau in Paris, the Schauspielhaus in Berlin, the Herkulessaal in Munich, Kolarac in Belgrade, Finlandia Hall in Helsinki, and the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.
Since 1988 he has also performed in ensemble with his mother, the cellist and composer Victoria Yagling. Several of Yagling's works were dedicated to him and published by Fennica Gehrman, including Cello Concerto No. 1, 6 Pieces for Children for piano, 5 Miniatures for piano, Sonatina No. 2 for piano, and Sonata No. 4 for cello and piano.
As a teacher, Chestopal has given master classes in the Czech Republic and has annually led master classes in Liège, Belgium. Since 2010 he has taught at the French-speaking Royal Conservatory of Brussels. He teaches in English, Russian, French, Italian, German, and Swedish.
In 2010 he received the degree of Doctor of Music from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki for the dissertation Temporal Correlation in the Goldberg Variations.
Connections
This figure has 1 connection in the Music Lineage catalog.