Karen Kornienko was a prizewinner at the I and II International Scriabin piano competitions in Nizhny Novgorod (1995) and Moscow (2000), and won the Grand Prix and 4 special prizes in the II International Rachmaninov competition (Moscow, 1997). He is a Laureate of the "New Names" International Charity Programme and is a soloist of the Moscow State Philharmony. He has toured extensively in Russia, Ukraine, Germany, France, Austria, Italy etc.

Mstislav Rostropovich highly appreciates Karen's talent, and invited him to perfom at the Evians festival in France, where he played Rachmaninov's III piano concerto with great success.