
For an artist of impeccable standards, and one who could play any piano made in the world, his choice is unwavering: “I’ve been looking for the ideal piano for some time, and at that moment I knew Shigeru Kawai was it,” he says. “I think that the sound of a piano is more important than anything else, but Shigeru Kawai has a really special sound.”
Alexander Kobrin
Alexander was celebrated by the BBC as “today’s Van Cliburn” and he did in fact win the 12th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2005. The Van Cliburn however is but one of a long list of Alexander’s international piano competitions in which he has received wide acclaim for his emotional, technically inspired performances with the greatest orchestras in the world.
Alexander Kobrin
Alexander Kobrin, Pianist
Born in Moscow in 1980, Alexander embarked on his piano performance journey and was enrolled in the prominent Gnessin Special School of Music by the age of five, where he studied under renowned pianist Tatiana Zelikman. By the age of 18, he was accepted as a student at the Moscow Conservatory under the tutelage of the great Lev Naumov.
He would be anointed “today’s Van Cliburn” by the BBC, and he did in fact win the 12th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2005.
The Van Cliburn would not be Alexander’s only international piano competition – that list includes Busoni, Hamamatsu (top prize), and Scotland.
He has received wide acclaim for his emotional, technically inspired performances with the greatest orchestras in the world including the New York Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic, Russian National Orchestra, Belgrade Philharmonic, English Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra Verdi, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Moscow Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony, Berliner Symphony, Chicago Sinfonietta, Swedish Radio Symphony, Birmingham Symphony, Warsaw Philharmonic, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Celebrated conductors all over the world seek to collaborate with him, including Mikhail Pletnev, Mikhail Jurovsky, Mark Elder, Vassiliy Sinaisky, and Bramwell Tovey.
As a recording artist, he has received rave reviews for his albums. His Schumann album was honored as one of the top five albums of 2015 by Fanfare Magazine.
Gramophone Magazine praised his Cliburn Competition release on Harmonia Mundi, writing that “in [Rachmaninoff’s] Second Sonata (played in the 1931 revision), despite fire-storms of virtuosity, there is always room for everything to tell and Kobrin achieves a hypnotic sense of the music’s dark necromancy.” His talent transcends all music, but he is most drawn by the music of the Classical and Romantic periods.
In addition to his success as a performer, Alexander continues to fuel his passion for teaching. He joined the faculty of the Gnessin State Academy of Music in 2003 where he nurtured promising college-level students until 2010. That same year he was honored as the L. Rexford Distinguished Chair in Piano at the Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University.
Next was the invitation to be a member of the distinguished Artist Faculty of New York University’s Steinhardt School. In July 2017, he accepted an invitation to join of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY.
He’s given widely celebrated master classes in Europe and Asia. He has been a jury member for international piano competitions, including the Van Cliburn in Fort Worth, TX, Busoni International Piano Competition in Bolzano, Hamamatsu International Piano Competition, and the Neuhaus International Piano Festival in Moscow.
He has also lent his respected jury insight to the 4th Shigeru Kawai International Piano Competition. In 2020, he became co-director of Hiiumaa Homecoming Festival in Estonia.
For an artist of impeccable standards, and one who could play any piano made in the world, his choice is unwavering: “I’ve been looking for the ideal piano for some time, and at that moment I knew Shigeru Kawai was it,” he says. “I think that the sound of a piano is more important than anything else, but Shigeru Kawai has a really special sound.”

“As a soloist and chamber musician, Alexander has given concert tours in USA, Europe and Russia”
Alexander Kobrin
Shigeru Kawai