Pallavi Mahidhara

2nd Prize piano 2014

Indian-American pianist Pallavi Mahidhara made her orchestral debut at the age of 10, performing at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago. She is the Second Prize winner and Young Audience Award winner of the 69th Geneva International Piano Competition, and of the VI International Prokofiev Competition in Saint Petersburg, Russia. She has won the Steinway Förderpreis in Germany, the Astral Artists National Auditions in the US, and has received on multiple occasions, the “Sobresaliente” Award from the hands of Queen Sofía of Spain.

Praised for her unique artistry and charismatic stage presence, she has appeared in solo and orchestral concerts across five continents, performing at the Konzerthaus in Berlin, the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and the Grand Hall of the Dimitri Shostakovich Philharmonia in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Pallavi is honored to be selected by Sir András Schiff for his concert series, Building Bridges, a platform to support and promote young pianists. She opened the series’ 2019-2020 season with a solo recital at the Konzerthaus in Berlin, and recently made her debut at the Beethoven Haus in Bonn. Upcoming concerts in the 2019-2020 season include concerto performances, solo, and chamber music recitals across Europe and the United States.

Last season, Pallavi made her debut at the Konzerthaus in Berlin with Metamorphosen Berlin under Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, in Budapest at the MÜPA with the Danubia Orchestra Óbuda under Róbert Farkas, and with the Eugene Symphony in Oregon under fellow Curtis classmate, Teddy Abrams. She gave chamber music recitals in Lisbon with Diemut Poppen and Pavel Gomziakov, in Geneva with István Várdai, and in Villefranche-sur-Mer with Theo Fouchennert. This past June, she gave a special performance of Kurtag’s Játékok, upon invitation of Ensemble Vide, at the Villa Bernasconi in Geneva. She performed for the 20th Anniversary of the Gijón Piano Festival with the OSPA in Gijón, Spain.

Pallavi has performed at important festivals such as Marlboro Music and Verbier Festival. She has given chamber music performances with renowned artists such as Wolfram Christ, Arnold Steinhardt, Peter Wiley, and Michael Rusinek, and has performed under the direction of Arjan Tien and Thomas Sanderling, amongst others. Pallavi’s musical projects have covered an extensive range, from standard Classical works, to music of contemporary and living composers, to fusion and crossover projects. She has collaborated with drummer Questlove of "The Roots" and international singer/songwriter Keren Ann for a genre-defying concert, fusing the classical world with hiphop, jazz, and folk-pop artists, at the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts. She gave performances of Steve Reich’s Double Sextet with the multi-Grammy Award-winning ensemble, “eighth blackbird”. She has premiered a large piano work, titled “Fantasia and Fugue in C” by one of India’s leading film composers, Vanraj Bhatia.

Pallavi received her Bachelor’s Degree from the Curtis Institute of Music, and her Master’s Degree at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler. She studied for several years with Dimitri Bashkirov at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía, where she is now a Piano Professor for their Music & Culture Summer Camp in Madrid, Spain.

Biography updated on 30.06.2020 | www.pallavimahidhara.com