JAN SCHULMEISTER

Young Czech pianist Jan Schulmeister, winner of dozens of international competitions and third-place winner of the prestigious 2023 Cliburn Junior Competition in Dallas, USA, will release his first solo album on the Supraphon label. For his Supraphon solo debut, he has chosen a demanding and expressive repertoire of Russian composers from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries – Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Alexander Scriabin. The album will be released on Friday, August 22, on CD and in digital formats.

The album presents the young Schulmeister as a performer of extraordinary technical brilliance and deep musical sensitivity. In Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, he embarks on an imaginary walk through an exhibition of paintings by the composer's deceased friend, the painter Viktor Hartmann. Rachmaninoff's Moments musicaux, written during a period of personal and creative crisis, reveal a wide range of emotions and moods. Scriabin's Preludes, Op. 16, influenced by Parisian Impressionism, demonstrate the composer's ability for subtle expression and spiritual depth.

"The works I have chosen are very close to my heart in every way! I have been playing compositions by Rachmaninoff and Scriabin since childhood. Their work 

has enchanted me with its harmonic richness and creativity. As a whole, this trio of compositions creates the dramaturgy of the album, which makes sense to me not only musically, but also humanly. There is a balance of form and inner content, as well as a variety of expressive positions – from the epic imagery of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, through the deep introspection and subtle spiritual touch of Scriabin's preludes, to Rachmaninoff's Moments Musicaux, where the individual parts are expressively shaded from a melodious and lyrical mood to a dramatic and stormy one," says Jan Schulmeister.

At only nineteen years of age, Jan Schulmeister (*2006) is one of the most outstanding talents of the youngest generation of Czech pianists. Victories in competitions such as the César Franck Piano Competition (Belgium 2019), North International Music Competition (Sweden 2021) and Manhattan International Competition (USA 2022) confirm his exceptional qualities. His Supraphon solo debut is another step on his artistic journey, which promises an extraordinary future.