Juilliard-Pianist Paulina Simkin

With her Fulbright Fellowship, pianist Paulina Simkin received her Master of Music in Piano Performance at The Juilliard School in New York studying with Prof. Matti Raekallio. Born in Russia, she has lived in Germany since the age of seven, and has played recitals, chamber concerts and concertos in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Poland, France, Spain, the U.S. and Japan. She is winner of The International Steinway & Sons Piano Competition in Hamburg, The International GROTRIAN Piano Competition in Brunswick, and the German national competition Jugend Musiziert in both categories solo, and duo - chamber music with cellist Johanna Helm (Staatskapelle Berlin under Daniel Barenboim).

Ms. Simkin has been a member of many chamber music projects with renowned musicians such as cellist Leonid Gorokhov (Hermitage String Trio), cellist Christoph Marks (Philharmonic Orchestra Hannover), and violinist Eric Silberger (New York Philharmonic). The only representative from Germany, she was invited as a research fellow to the Tokyo College of Music, Japan, which included concerts in Tokyo and publishing a paper on Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu. She has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Berliner Philharmonie, the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, the Gasteig in Munich, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and Alice Tully Hall in New York to name a few, and has been invited to several festivals, amongst others the International Steinway & Sons Festival, the Braunschweig Classix Festival and the Gdansk Spring, where she was soloist with The Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra.

Ms. Simkin began her music career at the age of five at a special school for gifted children at the Moscow Tchaikovsky conservatory. At the age of fifteen she began working with Prof. Bernd Goetzke at the pre-college for highly gifted young musicians (IFF) at the Hannover University of Music and Drama and received her Master of Music Education in Piano Pedagogy at the conservatory with highest distinction. In addition to a busy performance schedule, she has had the opportunity to work with distinguished teachers and pianists including Dmitri Bashkirov, John O’Conor, Piotr Paleczny and Lang Lang.

Ms. Simkin is a Young Steinway Artist.