About Evelina Vorontsova
A musical life spanning Moscow and Amsterdam, the concert platform and the conservatory classroom. Evelina Vorontsova brings these experiences together at Vorontsova Academy, where she teaches dedicated pianists in Amsterdam and online.
From Moscow to Amsterdam
Born into a family of pianists and piano teachers in Moscow, Vorontsova grew up with music as both a performing art and a craft passed from teacher to student. She studied at the Central Music School of the Tchaikovsky State Conservatory, with teachers including Mikhail Voskresensky, Elena Kuznetsova and Liudmila Roshchina.
At the Moscow Conservatory she continued her studies with Voskresensky, graduating with a gold medal and completing postgraduate study. Her qualifications encompassed concert performance, piano pedagogy, chamber music and the coaching of singers. Solo playing and collaborative musicianship developed alongside one another.
In Amsterdam, studies with Jan Wijn at the Sweelinck Conservatory led to the Uitvoerend Musicus diploma. Masterclasses with Earl Wild, John O’Conor and Eugen Indjic, and chamber-music masterclasses with Isaac Stern, broadened that formation. Her teaching draws on this experience and the Russian piano-school tradition in which she trained.
A career across repertoire and borders
Competition recognition came early: fourth prize at the Rachmaninov Competition in Moscow in 1990, followed by second prize at the International Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Utrecht in 1992. Later awards in Italy recognised her work in concerto and solo repertoire.
Her concert career includes recitals, orchestral appearances and chamber music in the Netherlands and abroad, with performances at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Doelen in Rotterdam, Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Hall and Teatro Comunale in Bologna. Collaborations have included Yehudi Menuhin and Lev Markiz, and chamber-music partners such as violinist Vera Beths and cellist Jeroen den Herder.
The repertoire ranges from Bach and the Classical tradition to Romantic works, Prokofiev and music shaped by jazz. Kapustin holds a particular place in her musical interests. Chamber programmes have included Franck’s Piano Quintet and Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du Temps, bringing another kind of listening and musical exchange to her performing life.
An ear for colour and musical form
Her Rachmaninoff album on STH Quality Classics brings together the Second Piano Sonata, Variations on a Theme of Corelli and Six Moments Musicaux. The programme places large-scale structure alongside intimate changes of character, texture and colour.
Stereophile selected the album as its Recording of the Month for August 2017. Earlier recordings and her concert repertoire offer further perspectives on her playing.
From conservatory study to professional life
Teaching and ensemble work have accompanied her performing career from its early stages. Her experience includes teaching piano and chamber music and coaching singers at the Moscow Conservatory, work as a correpetitor at the Sweelinck Conservatory, and piano and chamber-music masterclasses for conservatory students in France. She has also maintained an individual teaching practice in Amsterdam.
As a member of the piano faculty at Utrecht Conservatory, she taught principal-study piano at both Bachelor’s and Master’s level. The work encompassed artistic development, major repertoire and interpretation, alongside preparation for performances, examinations and auditions. Preparing students for professional musical careers meant attending to the demands of the concert platform as well as their continuing development as musicians.
This conservatory experience informs the depth of work available through the Academy: sustained attention to sound, technique, musical structure and the choices that make an interpretation convincing in performance.
Learning through ensemble playing
Chamber music and piano ensembles
At Utrecht, chamber-music projects brought faculty and students together in performance. Piano-ensemble projects included four-hand repertoire and works for two pianos, with students drawn from different piano studios. These projects placed individual preparation within the shared responsibilities of timing, balance, phrasing and ensemble listening.
Working with singers
Her Utrecht teaching also included accompaniment for pianists collaborating with singers. Lessons addressed the musical, stylistic and practical aspects of that partnership, with attention to text, diction and pronunciation. Understanding the words and the vocal line is part of shaping the piano’s role within the whole performance.
Artistic experience, shared at the piano
Today, Vorontsova Academy is the home of her individual teaching in Amsterdam and online. Conservatory and university music students, professional musicians, piano teachers and advanced amateurs come to this work with different musical questions; gifted young pianists are considered individually.
Lessons draw on a life spent preparing repertoire, performing with others and teaching musicians at different stages of development. Explore studying with Evelina or read the endorsements from pianists and pedagogues who know her work. For concert enquiries and the full performance archive, visit her performer site.