Biography

    “…Maxim Anikushin is undoubtedly destined to enter the annals of his generation’s important young pianists.” wrote Harris Goldsmith of the New York Concert Review after Mr. Anikushin’s successful debut at Weill Hall of Carnegie Hall on May 9, 1999.

Since immigrating to the U.S. at the age of 15  from his native Russia, Maxim  Anikushin has given a number of highly praised orchestral performances and solo recitals.  He has appeared at such prestigious venues as the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, and Steinway Hall in New York City; The Large and The Small Halls of The Moscow Conservatory;  in Durham and Newcastle in Great Britain; and in respected concert halls from coast to coast throughout the United States: from San Francisco to Maryland, Connecticut, New Jersey, metropolitan New York City, and Long Island.

His performances of major concerti  have included Tchaikovsky’s  First Piano Concerto with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra in Tours, France under the baton of Dmitry Yablonsky; Mozart’s D Minor Concerto with the Wallonia orchestra under the direction of George Octors in Brussels, Belgium; Ravel’s G Major Concerto in Maryland with the Chesapeake Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Jeffrey Silberschlag; and Shostakovich’s First Piano Concerto in Tours, France with the Moscow Soloists Orchestra under the baton of Yuri Bashmet. Mr. Anikushin has also recorded Shostakovich’s First Concerto and Prokofief’s Third Concerto in Mopscow with the Russian State Orchestra conducted by Dmitry Yablonski.

His many important past performances also include those at a number of notable international music festivals: among them The Puigcerda Festival in Spain, the Locarno Festival in Switzerland, The Musike Festival in Durham England, the La Ferte Saint Aubin Festival in France, the Tel-Hai in Israel, the Tours in France, the Fame Festival in New Jersey, and The Summit Festival in Tarrytown , New York.

Mr. Anikushin was born in Moscow in 1976, our Bicentennial year and immigrated to the U.S. in 1991 with his mother and grandmother to continue his music studies. He has since become a naturalized American citizen. However, he has some American ancestry and is, in fact, descended  from one of America’s very first immigrants, who arrived here on the Mayflower. Therefore,  perhaps one of his most satisfying performances was the charity recital he presented on the 29 of September, 2001 to benefit the Disaster Relief Fund of the United States Red Cross after the devastating attacks on World Trade Center. 

Maxim Anikushin has studied piano with a number of outstanding teachers including Ludmila Andreyeva and Yuri Batuyev in Moscow,  Milton Salkind in San Fransisco, Oxana Yablonskaya in New York and Jean Bernard Pommier in England. In 1992, he was accepted into the Juilliard School of  Music (on full scholarship) as a student of Oxana Yablonskaya. At Juilliard, he earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Piano Performance in 1996 and 1998, respectively.    

Mr. Anikushin also has won prizes a number of major international competitions, including the Young Artist’s Competition in New York City (sponsored by Artists International); the Senigallia Piano Competition in Italy; The Prokofiev Competition in St. Petersburg, Russia; the Vincenzo Bellini Competition in Calta-nissetta, Sicily, Italy; and Long Island’s “Five Towns Competition”. This year, for the second time, Mr. Anikushin presented a solo recital atWeill Concert Hall, Carnegie Hall.