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The Russian-born Finnish pianist, musicologist, poet, Victor Chestopal, into a family of musicians, writers, scientists and artists. His first piano lessons, at the age of 5, were under the guidance of his mother, Professor Victoria Yagling (1946-2011): a cellist and composer, a former student of Mstislav Rostropovich, and prize-winner of Tchaikovsky competition. At the age of 6, he was enrolled as a pupil at the Gnessin Music School and three years later at the Central Music School of the Tchaikovsky Conservatoire. There, his teachers were Tamara Bobovich, Alexander Mndoyants, Professors Lev Vlassenko and Mikhail Pletnev. At the age of twelve, Chestopal performed Felix Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor in Saratov and the following year gave a recital at Moscow’s Rachmaninoff Concert Hall. In 1990 he won the First Prize at the “Carlo Soliva” International Competition in Casale Monferrato (Italy), and in 1991 played before Pope John Paul II at the Vatican as a soloist in Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Russian National Orchestra conducted by Mikhail Pletnev.
Victor Chestopal has lived in Helsinki since 1990 and became a Finnish citizen in 1997, graduating with a Master’s degree from the Sibelius Academy in 2001. His studies at the Sibelius Academy were under the guidance of Professors Vitali Berzon and Erik T. Tawaststjerna. During his studies at the Accademia Pianistica “Incontri col Maestro” in Imola (Italy) from 1992 to 1997, and at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt in Weimar (Germany) from 1995 to 1997, he was tutored by Lazar Berman. In 2001 and 2002, he had an opportunity to play several times for Mstislav Rostropovich.
A prize-winner of several major piano competitions, Victor Chestopal has performed all over the world, appearing in concert halls such as the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Salle Gaveau in Paris, Schauspielhaus in Berlin, Herkulessaal in Munich, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire, Kolarac Hall in Belgrade and Finlandia Hall in Helsinki. He has been a guest at many festivals, such as the Festival de Wallonie, Naantali Festival, Janacek May, Brancaster Midsummer Music, Carl Orff Festival, Ascoli Piceno Festival. He has appeared as a soloist with such orchestras as the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Janacek Philharmonic, National Orchestra of Belgium and Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, the conductors including Mikhail Pletnev, Hugh Wolff, Dennis Burkh, Pierre Bartholomée and Aleksandar Markovic among others.
In the domain of chamber music, Victor Chestopal collaborated with Victoria Yagling (over 20 years), Arto Noras, Michael Flaksman, Xavier Phillips, Pavel Berman, David Grimal, Tokyo String Quartet and other artists and ensembles.
Victor Chestopal has recorded for Melodiya, Russian Disc, Ricercar and Record Production of Radio and Television of Serbia (Sergei Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3, with the Serbian Radio and Television Orchestra, conducted by Aleksandar Markovic).
In 2010, Victor Chestopal became a Doctor of Music at the Sibelius Academy. The doctoral degree comprised five recitals dedicated to the cornerstones of the piano repertoire (J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations (BWV 988); L.v. Beethoven’s Grosse Sonate für das Hammerklavier, op. 106; Schubert’s Sonata in B flat major D 960; Johannes Brahms’ Sonata No. 3, op. 5; Franz Liszt’s Sonata in B minor, among other works) and a doctoral thesis entitled “Temporal correlation in the Goldberg Variations”. He has been active as a pedagogue, conducting master-classes at several European universities and conservatories. Since 2007 he has led annual piano master-classes in Liège, and since 2018 he is a piano professor at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles and Accademia Perosi (Biella, Italy). He is invited as a jury member of international piano competitions.
Victor Chestopal is regularly involved in charity projects: he gave performances for “Save the Children”, “Mary’s Meals”, “Arche”, “Deutsche Stiftung gegen Mangelernährung” and other organizations.
In 2012, Victor Chestopal donated Victoria Yagling’s and his own sound archives to the National Library of Finland.
2013: live recording of Victor Chestopal’s recital in Liège (Grieg, Robert Schumann, Yagling) is issued on two CDs by Pianos Wielick.
2013-2014: in a series of recitals in Finland, Germany and Belgium Victor Chestopal performed Victoria Yagling’s complete piano works. Several concerts in Italy, with Jelena Ocic, were dedicated to V.Yagling’s works for cello and piano.
2014: Ruslania Books (Helsinki) published Victor Chestopal’s collection of poems Anno (in Russian, Italian and French).
2015-2016: series of recitals in several European countries (L.v. Beethoven’s op. 109/110/111; Frédéric Chopin’s 24 Etudes).
2017: series of recitals in Belgium and Germany (Prokofiev’s Piano Sonatas No. 6, 7, 8).
2018: Ruslania Books (Helsinki) published Victor Chestopal’s collection of poems Poeticheskie dnevniki / Diari poetici / Journaux poétiques (in Russian, Italian and French). Victor Chestopal begins his work as a piano professor at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles and Accademia Perosi (Biella, Italy).
Victor Chestopal teaches in French, English, Italian, German, Swedish and Russian. |
