Yuri Blinov
Yuri Blinov was born in Drogichin, Belarus in 1975 and studied at the State Music Gymnasium-College in Minsk. He made his first important public performance at the age of nine in the Minsk Philharmonic Hall and within a year he performed with an orchestra in the same venue. At the age of twelve, he debuted in the Philharmonic Hall in Leningrad (St-Petersburg) with Belarus State Symphony featuring Shostakovich Concerto #2. In his early teenage, Yuri won the fifth prize in the Young Pianists Competition of the USSR and placed third in the 1st Jasep Vitols International Piano Competition in Riga. He won unanimously first prize of the 1st Prokofiev International Competition in St-Petersburg when he was only seventeen years old.
Yuri Blinov completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at Belarusian Academy of Music. In 2000, he received the Lili Kraus Scholarship and moved to Texas to study at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth where he completed the Piano Artist Diploma Program. He has won several prizes of other significant competitions in the United States including: first prize in the 2001 Music Teachers National Association Competition, second prize in 2001 Hilton Head International Piano Competition, first prize in the 2002 Bartok-Prokofiev International Piano Competition, first prize in the 2005 Grand Prix Chopin International Piano Competition in Texas. In 2002, Yuri took part in the cultural program of the XIX Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City – he, played a recital in the mansion of the Governor of Utah for honored guests of the Games.
Yuri has completed numerous concert tours in Russia, Ukraine and Japan followed by a performance in the Scriabin Anniversary Festival in Moscow and a series of recitals in Great Britain. Other engagements took him to China, Belgium, Germany, Italy (Busoni Festival and Festival Viaggi), Switzerland, Austria, France, Poland (Chopin Festival in Duszniki-Zdròj and Lipinski Festival in Radzyn-Podlaski), and the United States. He has been among the preferred performers in former Soviet countries as well as a frequent soloist with the Belarus State Symphony and the St-Petersburg Philharmonic. In September 2006, he made an acclaimed debut at Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall.
In 2009 Yuri Blinov earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. In 2008-10 he was the President of the International Society of Pianists and Composers (ISPC). Among his further achievements was the first prize of the Silvio Bengalli International Piano Competition in Val Tidone, Italy (2011) and successful appearance in one of the biggest European festivals “Klavierfestival Ruhr” in 2013.
Yuri Blinov is the artistic director of the biennial Nicolas Nabokov Festival in Navahrudak, Belarus and the founder and artistic director of the international Competition-Festival for young musicians “Paleski Ahienchyk” in Drahichyn. He is currently on the position of Artist-in-Residence at Belarus State Academy of Music and also a visiting Professor at Folkwang University of Arts in Essen, Germany (since 2012). He is maintaining high performing and teaching activity in Belarus and abroad.
Dr. Blinov has also earned acknowledgement in the field of composition. He was a prizewinner of the Youth Assemblies of Arts International Competition in Moscow and a diploma recipient in the 2003 Prokofiev International Composers’ Competition. His composition “Impromptu and Fugue” was selected as a commissioned work for the Minsk International Piano Competition (2000), he also received the prize of Music Critics of Texas for his piano arrangement of “Francesca da Rimini” tone poem by P. Tchaikovsky. In February 2016, his first Author’s concert was held with a big acclaim at the Great Philharmonic Hall in Minsk. Among other, there was a world premiere of his unique work for piano solo, string orchestra, percussions and a whistle entitled “Concerto-Krooso” and dedicated to the famous German football player Toni Kroos. The work has become a sensation and received multiple reviews in international media.