Pianist Vsevolod Zavidov is widely regarded as one of the most exciting young talents to emerge from the storied Russian piano tradition. He recently gained international acclaim as the winner of the 2025 Prix UBS Jeunes Solistes—an esteemed biennial award granted to the most outstanding student enrolled at a Swiss music academy, and a recognized springboard to international careers. Currently based in Geneva, Zavidov first captivated audiences as a child prodigy and continues to gain acclaim for his remarkable artistry and maturity well beyond his years.
Born in Moscow in 2005, Zavidov began piano lessons at the age of four with Tamara Koloss at the Central Music School of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory. He made his concert debut at the Great Hall of the Conservatory at the age of eight. He later continued his studies with Prof. Tatiana Zelikman at the Gnessin School of Music Moscow. Since autumn 2023, he has been studying with Nelson Goerner at the Haute école de musique de Genève, where he is pursuing a master’s degree in Specialized Musical Performance for Soloists.
In 2016, at the age of ten, Zavidov made his solo debut in the United States at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in New York. Since then, he has appeared in all the major Russian venues, given recitals across Europe and toured the north-eastern United States and Japan. He has been invited to perform at the Stars of the White Nights Festival and the Mariinsky International Piano Festival. A significant milestone came in August 2023 with his debut on the main stage of the Festival International de Piano de La Roque d’Anthéron. In April 2024, he stepped in for Khatia Buniatishvili to perform Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto with the Taiwan Philharmonic under Jun Märkl in Basel.
Highlights of 2025 include his Geneva recital debut at the Liszt Hall as part of the “Les Grands Interprètes” series and a concert tour in Japan. In August, he will make his debut at the Lucerne Festival and return to La Roque d’Anthéron, performing Liszt‘s “12 Études d’exécution transcendante”. He will also present the same program in Monte-Carlo and appear in Basel’s Stadtcasino performing Rachmaninov’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43”, with the Swiss Youth Symphony Orchestra under Johannes Schlaefli.
Zavidov is an alumnus of the Theo and Petra Lieven International Piano Foundation and the Verbier Festival Academy. His competition successes include First Prize at the Concertino Praga (2020) and the Gina Bachauer International Junior Piano Competition in Salt Lake City (2021). Most recently, in December 2024, the Radu Lupu Foundation awarded him the inaugural Prix Radu Lupu, citing “his impressive musical maturity and exceptional technique“.
Zavidov has attracted significant critical acclaim. Following his 2023 performance at La Roque d’Anthéron, Serge Martin wrote in Le Soir: “The real discovery this year…the staggering Vsevolod Zavidov, whose Rachmaninov program was as rich in emotion as in technical command. At only 17 years old, this is a name to remember.” International Piano magazine named him “One-to-Watch”, highlighting “his sensitivity, which includes vivid extremes of delicacy, goes well beyond the notes.” The review drew comparisons to great pianists of the past – Richter, Sofronitsky, Horowitz, Cherkassky, and Rachmaninov – calling them “the past from which he is the likely future.”
