Karen Kornienko was born in Astrakhan. After graduating from the Moscow conservatoire where he studied under professors E. Malinin and V. Gornostaeva, he then continued as a postgraduate student under professor V. Gornostaeva.
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.
The pianist has performed at many music festivals. 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. He had Rachmaninov recital on the «Settimane musicale di Stresa» festival in Italy, took part at the many music festivals in Germany and Russia.
He has toured extensively in Russia, Ukraine, Germany, France, Austria, Italy etc.
Many of the recitals were broadcasted by the radio and TV companies (BBC, The Radio of Russia, The Radio «Orpheus» TV channel «Culture», «Mezzo» etc.)
Karen Kornienko is very interested in the genre of piano transcriptions, and has given-solo programmes of his own transcriptions based on Tchaikovsky's, Liadov's, Rachmaninov's, Ghlinka's, Bizet's music as a regular part of his repertoire.
In 2001 there was published CD, consisting of Rachmaninov piano pieces, In 2003 - CD including only piano transcriptions by K.Kornienko, based on Tchaikovsky's ballet «Nutcracker» and «Swan Lake», and Liadov's Three Fairy tale pictures for the symphony orchestra «Baba Yaga», «Enchanted Lake» and «Kikimora». In 2003 there was published the scores of the Symphonic suite by K.Kornienko on P.Tchaikovsky ballet «Nutcracker». In 2016 was a premiere of CD & DVD «Wreath of Waltzes».
In 2002-2003 there were published scores of the Symphonic suite by K.Kornienko on P.Tchaikovsky ballet «The Nutcracker» and his new CD, consisting only of his arrangements of music to «Swan Lake» and «The Nutcracker» by P.Tchaikovsky and to Three Fairy tale pictures («Baba Yaga», «Magical Lake», «Kikimora») for the symphony orchestra by A.Liadov.
About Karen Kornienko
Among the great number of young pianists, Karen Kornienko stands out as having start quality with a combination of qualities that are rarely concentrated in one performer The-peculiartty of his performance is high professionalism, virtuosity, intuition, a diverse and polyphonic sound palette, sense of style, and, at the same time, deep musicality and spirituality.
Professor A. Nasedkin, People's Artist of Russia.
I know the pianist Karen Kornienko, as a great creative artist and a vivid performer. All he performs compels the listener. His artistic talent shows a very wide scale of thinking. As an artist he is seen first of all as a romanticist. His hands easily master technical difficulties many of which are practically insuperable for others, and yet he conveys a free, natural sound. For example, the 24 Etudes-by Chopin were learned and performed in recitals over a 12-month period as if they fell naturally under his hands.
But we should not set limits on the spectrum of his talents simply as a performer of remantic music Karen Kornienko is also a talented composer and this brings other specific gifts to his potential career. He surpasses traditional boundaries and promises to be one of the exceptional artists of the future
Professor V. Gomostaeva, People's Artist of Russia.
Karen Kornienko is a concert pianist of outstanding talent, a brilliant interpreter arid virtuoso.
Profesor.V. Merzhanov, People's Artist of the USSR.
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