Alexander Peskanov


Alexander Peskanov is an American/Russian concert pianist and a composer.

Life

Alexander Peskanov was born in Odessa, Ukraine, where he attended the Stoliarsky School of Music. He immigrated to the United States from the U.S.S.R. in 1973, and attended the Juilliard School of Music. His soloist career debut was with Mstislav Rostropovich and the National Symphony. He has also appeared with the London Symphony Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, SABC Symphony Orchestra, Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, Polish Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra, Bogotá Philharmonic, Venezuela Symphony Orchestra, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, as well as in the United States with the Baltimore, St. Louis, Houston, Utah, Richmond and Pacific Symphonies, and collaborated with Maurice Andre, Jean-Pierre Rampal and Yo-Yo Ma.
Peskanov has performed at the Wolf Trap, Aspen, Grant Park, Newport, Seattle, Vancouver, Monterrey, Sarasota and Flagstaff festivals, and in coast-to-coast recitals including a piano recital at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center as part of the series, “Russian Splendor,” the prestigious Van Cliburn Foundation Series in Ft. Worth, Texas, and the Gina Bachauer Piano Festival in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was a featured soloist at The 3rd Sopot International Music Festival in Poland in the performance of Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1.
Peskanov founded a new piano syllabus/event, Piano Olympics in 1991, a program for evaluation of piano technical skills and authored a series of six books, The Russian Technical Regimen for the Piano, published by Hal Leonad/Willis Music. He has also produced the movie soundtracks of He Knows You're Alone in collaboration with his brother, Mark Peskanov, The Clairvoyant, The Lottery Rose, as well as the music score for musical, Blockheads, Original London Production, , London, England. One of his compositions, Temptations, was animated by Stephen Malinowski.

Composing

Peskanov is a composer of numerous works, but has mainly focused on music involving the piano. Peskanov has written 17 piano concertos, including 14 for young pianists of different levels. His Concerto No. 1 for Piano and Strings was selected for use by the National Federation of Music Clubs between 2004 and 2020. The score and recording was released by Hal Leonard Publications. Between 2013 and 2016, Peskanov Piano Concertos No.1, 6, and 10 were performed by the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and were broadcast on Estonian National Radio. In the summer of 2014, Peskanov's Concerto No.2 was premiered in Mexico at the Zacatecas International Music Festival. The winners of the 2015 Brown Piano Concerto Competition have performed his Concerto No.1 last January. In October 2015, Peskanov's Concerto No.5 was premiered in New York at the Carnegie Hall Gala Fundraiser, entitled, "Express Yourself Through Music" and dedicated to Musical Education and Autism. Peskanov's Piano Concerto No.3 and Piano Concerto No.7 was premiered at Piano Concerto Extravaganza at College of Music, Payap University in Thailand. In April 2017, Peskanov's Spring Concerto and Azery Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra had a world premiere at Carnegie/Weill Recital Hall by the young piano soloists from 4 continents. In November 2017 the same two concertos had European Premiere at St. John's Smith Square, Westminster, in London, Great Britain. Also, Peskanov Concerto No.7 was premiered in South Africa and Concerto No. 1 for Piano and Strings was premiered at Prince Alfred College in Adelaide, Australia.
In 2017, Thirteen Piano Concertos by Alexander Peskanov have been featured in newly released "The Pianist's Guide to Standard Teaching and Performance Concertos" by Karen Beres and Christopher Hahn, published by Alfred Music. The new releases included several piano trios, written for Six Hands and “Spring Concerto” for Piano and Orchestra, published in 2015 by Alfred Music and selected for the National Federation of Music Clubs’ 2017–2020. Peskanov is the recipient of three special ASCAP awards.

Albums