MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (with Ravel - Valses nobles et Sentimentales)

Ivo Pogorelich was born in Belgrade in 1958. He received his first piano lessons at the age of seven, and went to Moscow at the age of twelve to study at the Central Music School and then at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory. In 1976 he began intensive studies with the renowned pianist and teacher Aliza Kezeradze with whom he was married from 1980 until her untimely death in 1996. Ivo Pogorelich won the Casagrande Competition at Terni (Italy) in 1978 and the Montreal International Music Competition in 1980; but it was the prize he failed to win that made him world-famous. In 1980 he entered the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw where his elimination in the third round sparked a fierce controversy which drew the attention of the whole musical world to the pianist.

Ever since his debut recital in New York's Carnegie Hall (1981), Ivo Pogorelich has created a sensation with his performances in all the great concert halls throughout the world: in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Japan, South America and Israel. He has received invitations to play with numerous major orchestras such as the Berlin and Wiener Philharmoniker Orchestras, all the London orchestras, the Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic and the Orchestre de Paris.

Ivo Pogorelich also supports young musicians. In 1986 he established a foundation in Croatia to raise funds for scholarships for young artists to further their studies abroad. Since 1989 the annual Ivo Pogorelich Festival has taken place in Bad Wörishofen: the aim of the festival is to support promising young musicians at the beginning of their careers by giving them the opportunity of performing together with renowned artists. In 1993 the Ivo Pogorelich Piano Competition was held for the first time in California.

In 1994 the pianist set up a foundation in Sarajevo to raise money to build a hospital and to provide medical support for the people of Sarajevo. With this aim in mind, numerous concerts are planned for the forthcoming year under the auspices of the UNESCO. Ivo Pogorelich also gives many charity concerts in support of, for example, the Red Cross, the rebuilding of Sarajevo, or the fight against illnesses such as cancer and multiple sclerosis. In 1988 he was named an "Ambassador of Goodwill" by UNESCO.