Prof. Semjon Skigin

Prof. Semjon Skigin was born in St. Petersburg and studied at the Leningrad school for highly gifted young musicians and with Prof. Savshinsky and Prof. Perelman at the Leningrad State Conservatoire, where he later accompanied chamber music and lieder classes. In 1972 Semjon Skigin became solo pianist with the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra and in 1975 he won the grand prize in the international piano accompanist competition in Rio de Janeiro. From 1978-81 he was guest professor at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden. Since then he has performed regularly at the Dresden Music Festival. His tours as accompanist have taken him to Cologne, Vienna, Amsterdam, Paris, London, New York and San Francisco, with Peter Schreier, Olga Borodina, Olaf Bär, Sergei Leiferkus, Ljubov Kasarnovskaia, Cheryl Studer and others. He has made numerous recordings. The album "Great Edition of Russian Songs", a compilation of songs by Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky and Glinka, received the Gramophone Award in 1995 and the Cannes Classical Award in 1996. Since 1992 Semjon Skigin has been Professor of Role Study at the Academy of Music Hanns Eisler Berlin. He regularly directs masterclasses at music colleges in Germany, the Netherlands and the USA. Semjon Skigin is artistic director of the Theatre Barge Music Festival in Dresden and vice president and artistic director of the Berlin Salon.