Friends
Konstantin Shamray: Presented by The Friends of The Sydney

This concert is presented by The Friends of  The Sydney.

Described as an exhilarating performer with faultless technique and fearless command of the piano, Australian based Russian pianist Konstantin Shamray enjoys performing on an international level with the world’s leading orchestras and concert presenters.

Konstantin was born in Novosibirsk and commenced his studies at the age of six with Natalia Knobloch. He then studied in Moscow at the Russian Gnessin Academy of Music with Professors Tatiana Zelikman and Vladimir Tropp, and the Hochschule fur Musik in Freiburg, Germany with Professor Tibor Szasz.

In 2008, Konstantin burst onto the concert scene when he won First Prize at the Sydney International Piano Competition. He is the first and only competitor to date in the 40 years of the competition to win both First and People’s Choice Prizes, in addition to six other prizes. He then went on to win First Prize at the 2011 Klavier Olympiade in Bad Kissingen, Germany and has performed at the Kissinger Sommer festival. In July 2013, following chamber recitals with Alban Gerhardt and Feng Ning, he was awarded the festival’s coveted Luitpold Prize for “outstanding musical achievements”.

Since then, Konstantin performs extensively throughout the world. In Australia, highlights include engagements with the Adelaide, Western Australia, Queensland, Melbourne and Sydney Symphony orchestras (the latter two have been rescheduled due to Covid interruptions).  Outside of Australia he has performed with the Russian National Philharmonic, the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Moscow Virtuosi, Orchestre National de Lyon, Prague Philharmonia, Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra and the Calgary Philharmonic among others.  He has enjoyed collaborating with distinguished conductors such as Vladimir Spivakov, Dmitry Liss, Tugan Sokhiev, Nicholas Milton and Alexandr Vedernikov.

Chamber music plays a strong role in Konstantin’s musical career and collaborations have included tours with the Australian String Quartet, the Australia Piano Quartet, Kristof Barati, Andreas Brantelid, Li Wei Qin and Leonard Elschenbroich.  Konstantin has performed as part of the International Piano Series in Adelaide, and at the Melbourne Recital Centre and Ukaria Cultural Centre.  He has enjoyed critical acclaim at the Klavier-Festival Ruhr, the Bochum Festival in Germany, the Mariinsky International Piano Festival and the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg, Adelaide festival, Musica Viva Sydney and Huntington festivals.Konstantin has recorded albums with the labels Naxos, ABC Classics and Fonoforum.

Konstantin is Lecturer in Piano at the Elder Conservatorium of Music at the University of Adelaide, and was awarded his PhD in 2020 for his performance-based project ‘The piano as Kolokola, Glocken and Cloches: performing and extending the European traditions of bell-inspired piano music’.