Alexej Gorlatch was born in Kiev in 1988, and has lived in Germany since 1991. He began learning the piano at the age of seven under the tutelage of Eduard-Georg Georgiew in Passau and became a junior student of Martin Hughes at the Berlin University of the Arts at the age of twelve. Two years later, he continued his studies at the University of Music and Drama Hanover, first with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling and subsequently with Bernd Goetzke. His spectacular victory at the 2011 ARD International Music Competition, where he won the First Prize, the Audience Award and numerous special prizes, was just another step in a brilliant career that started six years earlier when he won first prizes at nine renowned international events, including the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition (2006), the German Music Competition (2008), and the International Anton Rubinstein Competition (2009).
Alexej Gorlatch’s intensive concert activities have taken him to the most important concert venues in the world (Carnegie Hall in New York, Wigmore Hall in London, Konzerthaus and Philharmonic Hall in Berlin, Salzburg Festspielhaus, Konzerthaus in Vienna, and Suntory Hall in Tokyo). He has accepted invitations to such famous events as the Lucerne Festival, the Ruhr Piano Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival, the Yokohama International Piano Festival, the Schwetzingen Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the MDR Musiksommer, and the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Moreover, he has had concert tours in Asia, Europe and the USA and performed as a soloist with numerous Japanese, German and Austrian orchestras (Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, HR Sinfonieorchester, NDR Sinfonieorchester, NDR Radiophilharmonie, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden/Freiburg, Dresdner Philharmonie, Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Camerata Salzburg, Wiener Kammerorchester).
On his latest CD, recorded for Sony Classical, he played works for piano and orchestra by Igor Stravinsky with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin directed by Alondra de la Parra. His discography encompasses studio productions on the Oehms Classics, BR Klassik, Genuin and RAM labels, as well as live recordings, especially of his performance at the 2012 Ruhr Piano Festival and from his final recital during the 2011 ARD International Music Competition at the Gasteig in Munich. Alexej Gorlatch is a professor at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts.
Photos: © Kaupo Kikkas
