Dreaming in Chopin: An Interview with Yulianna Avdeeva

yulianna_avdeeva_and_bruce_liu_wojciech_grzedzinski_nifc.jpg, default, Yulianna Avdeeva and 2021 Chopin Competition winner Bruce Liu, following the inaugural concert of the 2025 Chopin Competition at the Warsaw Philharmon

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How does one of the world’s most sought-after pianists handle a non-stop global tour and a jury seat at the Chopin Competition? By dreaming of the music before she ever touches the keys. Yulianna Avdeeva discusses her ‘piano god’, her secret non-classical playlists, and why she believes the works of Szpilman and Weinberg are the ultimate response to modern tragedy.

Yulianna Avdeeva certainly didn’t rest on her laurels after winning the 2010 International Chopin Piano Competition. In recent years, her recording career has flourished: 2023 saw the release of Resilience (featuring Weinberg, Szpilman, Shostakovich and Prokofiev – composers marked by totalitarianism). The following year, she returned to Chopin’s repertoire after more than a decade with Voyage Chopin. Then, in 2025, she published a two-and-a-half-hour release containing the complete recording of the 24 Preludes and Fugues Op. 87, Dmitri Shostakovich’s piano magnum opus. The album closes with the Prelude & Fugue in C-Sharp Minor, a piece left unfinished by Shostakovich. It was completed based on surviving sketches by Krzysztof Meyer, a Polish composer and musicologist who was a personal friend of Shostakovich. Meyer is also the author of a highly regarded monograph on the composer (published in Polish, German, French, Dutch, Spanish and Russian).

Avdeeva has been touring almost non-stop for the last two years. Her 2025 schedule included performances across the USA, France, Italy, Japan, Israel, Switzerland, South Korea and China. Highlights included playing Shostakovich at the Chopin and his Europe festival in Warsaw, and performing Andrzej Czajkowski’s Cello Sonata with Krzysztof Chorzelski. She also dedicated nearly all of October 2025 to serving on the Chopin Competition jury in Warsaw for the first time.

Having already toured extensively across Europe in early 2026, she will perform at the Salle Molière in Lyon on 10 March 2026. This concert is part of the Polish Focus programme, co-organised by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, the Auditorium Orchestre National de Lyon, Chapelle de la Trinité, the Polish Institute in Paris, and the Polish Consulate in Lyon. Her show will feature works by Chopin, Szpilman and Paderewski.

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Yulianna Avdeeva after winning the 16th International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, October 20, 2010. Photo: Radek Pietruszka / PAP

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In her upcoming concerts, the pianist will play music by Bach, Liszt, Bartók, Rachmaninoff, Schumann, Brahms and Prokofiev (though Chopin will appear in almost every programme). She has an incredibly demanding schedule, and I knew she wouldn’t have the time to answer all my questions. Initially, I thought I would focus our conversation on her participation in the Chopin Competition jury and how her approach to Chopin’s music has changed over the years. However, she had already discussed this in other interviews. So, I wrote to Yulianna with this in mind, letting her know that I would be asking her the same questions I put to Garrick Ohlsson last year – another famed winner of the Chopin Competition who went on to become a jury member.

Filip Lech: What does being a pianist mean to you?

Yulianna Avdeeva: For me, personally, being a pianist, or I would say being a musician, is a very special way of life. It’s not only during the hours I spend at the piano that music is in my head, my soul, and my hands. Basically, it’s 24/7 that I have music in my head. It occupies me the entire time, no matter what I do or where I am. Sometimes I realise it’s happening, sometimes it happens unconsciously, and this is something really special.

FL: Do you ever dream of music?

YA: I absolutely dream music. I dream of specific pieces, sometimes even those I cannot play. But the most fascinating thing is that solutions for challenging spots in a new piece I am learning often come to me at night. Something happens in the brain at night. When I’m searching for a better fingering or phrasing, for instance, I sometimes wake up knowing exactly which version I should try. And mostly, it works. Being a musician is a very specific, very special way of life.

FL: So-called ‘work-life balance’ is a topic that psychologists and other experts talk a lot about nowadays. Do you feel like you’ve found it?

YA: Work-life balance is an important topic, but it’s highly individual. It comes down to a personal feeling of what kind of balance you need. Being a musician is a unique way of life that demands all my energy, time and soul.

Nevertheless, I have routines to help me switch off. I read, and I have a great passion for chess – I still love analysing games from the World Championship. Spending time in nature also helps clear my mind and soul, and I do it as often as I can. Ultimately though, music is my greatest support in all situations.

FL: Do you think that artists have obligations towards society? Should public figures set an example and speak up about important issues? When we spoke with Garrick Ohlsson, the war in Ukraine was still a ‘fresh’ topic – as terrible as that sounds. Today, there are even more horrific things happening in the world...

YA: I think this is highly individual. It is entirely up to each artist whether they choose to speak out publicly or not. Personally, I believe a musician’s primary language is music. To me, music is simply stronger than any word I could possibly use. It is the language I am most comfortable with, and how I express a wide range of emotions.

It's fascinating how 20th-century music carries such profound meaning. Before then, the world hadn’t seen tragedies on the massive scale of World War I, World War II and the Holocaust. Knowing the historical background of a piece is important to me, but ultimately, the music speaks for itself.

You can hear it in the works of Władysław Szpilman, Mieczysław Weinberg and Valentin Silvestrov, all of whom I perform regularly. Playing their music is my way of expressing what I feel and how I respond to the events happening in the world. That is my personal choice.

FL: Music allows us to find beauty and harmony, which often fade amidst daily life. I believe this holds true even in the reality of war, as the works of Szpilman, Weinberg and Shostakovich prove. Stepping away from music for a moment, are there other forms of art you feel particularly drawn to, like painting or cinema? What brings you peace and comfort in difficult times?

YA: As I’ve said, music is the most natural way for me to express myself, and to find hope, comfort and solutions in any situation. Honestly, there are moments when playing music initially feels inappropriate, but it is always the source I return to. It’s there for me in both happy and deeply tragic times.

Other art forms are also very important to my life, primarily literature and painting. Even though my first reaction to any event is always music, understanding the historical background of a piece is essential. All art forms are connected, and artists have always inspired each other.

I love reading books from the time a piece was composed, sometimes even by the composer’s friends. The same applies to paintings – they are a great source of inspiration that helps me shape a composer’s music. The core elements of art are universal, whether it’s a painting, a novel or a piece of music.

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Garrick Ohlsson and Yulianna Avdeeva performing together during the opening concert of the 19th Chopin Competition. Photo: Wojciech Grzędziński / NIFC (The Fryderyk Chopin Institute)

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FL: Returning to music – what do you listen to outside of broadly understood classical music?

YA: I’ve had a broad interest in all kinds of music since I was a teenager. I spent hours listening to rock, pop, hip hop and many other genres. I still use non-classical music when I’m practicing and my brain won’t shut off – when I just need to get a specific piece out of my head.

There are many great artists out there, and I’m always curious about new ones emerging. While I don't follow them as closely as I did in my student years, it remains a great interest of mine.

FL: Do you have any musical guilty pleasures?

YA: Nothing really comes to mind right now. If I had one, it would probably be something non-classical, but I wouldn’t dare mention it here…

FL: Who are your favourite pianists from the past?

YA: I have a long list, but my piano god was Sergei Rachmaninoff. No one treated the piano better than he did. His sound was grand yet elegant, combining incredible transparency and a light touch with true warmth. His voicing is absolutely amazing and inspiring.

I also deeply admire Ignacy Jan Paderewski. I’ve been fascinated by his life and art since I was a teenager, and even wrote my student thesis on him. He is one of the most fascinating personalities in the music world. I love his music, particularly the Polish Fantasy in G-sharp minor. It was an honour to play it twice with the Warsaw Philharmonic. It has such an amazing Slavic spirit and character.

Other favourites include Arthur Rubinstein, Józef Hofmann, Vladimir Horowitz and Benno Moiseiwitsch. Alfred Cortot is also a major idol of mine, especially for Chopin and Schumann. Every recording of his is deeply special to me. Ultimately, it is the remarkable sound quality, transparency and expression these pianists possessed that makes their recordings so addictive.

FL: At the concert in Lyon, you will interweave Chopin’s works with compositions by Władysław Szpilman. There’ll also be the ‘Cracovienne Fantastique in B major’ or ‘Krakowiak Fantastyczny’ in Polish. To finish, you’re planning on playing Chopin’s ‘24 Preludes’. A very interesting programme – I regret that I won’t get to hear it!

Your close relationship with Chopin requires no further comment – after all, you’re one of the winners of the Chopin Competition. Let’s talk about Władysław Szpilman, who is also a creator extremely close to your heart. The suite ‘Life of the Machines’ was, until relatively recently, considered lost.

YA: I feel incredibly lucky to know his family, including both of his sons. Władysław Szpilman composed the suite Life of the Machines just before leaving Berlin in 1933, but the score was long considered lost during the war. It was shocking to learn that after surviving the Warsaw Ghetto and the Holocaust, Szpilman was completely unable to reconstruct his pre-war work. It is impossible to imagine what he went through.

That’s why it is an absolute miracle that the original manuscript was discovered in California in 2000, and I was deeply honoured to finally receive it from Andrzej Szpilman.

FL: The ‘Mazurka in F minor’, which you’ll be performing in Lyon, was written in 1942 while Szpilman was in the Warsaw Ghetto.

YA: That brings us back to the start of our conversation. He composed it in the ghetto, when Jewish artists were forbidden from performing Fryderyk Chopin’s music. Because the opening of this Mazurka sounds a bit like Chopin, someone might mistake it for a copy, but it absolutely is not. It reflects Szpilman’s creative way of circumventing the prohibition, finding comfort in the light of the past amidst a despairing present, and perhaps holding onto hope for the future.

This mazurka is a profound historical document that holds a very special place in my heart and my repertoire. I’m incredibly grateful to perform Szpilman’s original compositions. Though few exist, they serve as a powerful reminder of the times he lived through.

Interview conducted in English, March 2026

Yulianna Avdeeva was born in Moscow in 1985 and began her musical education at the Gnessin Special School of Music at just five years old. She later graduated from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Zurich.

In 2002, she won the Arthur Rubinstein in Memoriam International Competition for Young Pianists in Bydgoszcz. Notably, second prize went to Rafał Blechacz, who later won the 2005 International Chopin Piano Competition. Five years after him, Avdeeva herself won the Warsaw Chopin Competition, becoming only the fourth woman in history to triumph at the ‘Chopin Olympics’.

Chopin’s music has remained a constant companion throughout her career. In 2025, she returned to his repertoire in the studio, releasing the album Voyage – Chopin on the Pentatone label. The recording won the French music industry’s highest honour, the Diapason d’Or de l’Année 2025. Avdeeva has also recorded works by other Polish composers, including Mieczysław Weinberg and Władysław Szpilman.

In 2025, she served on the jury of the International Chopin Piano Competition for the very first time, returning 15 years after her own first-prize victory. During the competition’s inaugural concert, she and Garrick Ohlsson (jury chairman and the 1970 winner) performed Francis Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra. Following this, Yulianna, Ohlsson, Bruce Liu (the 2021 champion) and Đặng Thái Sơn (the 1980 winner) joined forces to play J.S. Bach’s Concerto for Four Pianos.

Yulianna Avdeeva’s recital at the Salle Molière in Lyon on 10 March 2026 will mark the end of the first part of the Polish Focus programme. This initiative is a collaborative effort between the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, the Auditorium Orchestre National de Lyon, Chapelle de la Trinité, the Polish Institute in Paris, and the Polish Consulate General in Lyon. Since November 2025, ten concerts have been held, giving French audiences the opportunity to discover outstanding Polish classical musicians and the works of Polish composers.

The public had the chance to hear ensembles and soloists specialising in historical performance – such as the Arte dei Suonatori orchestra with harpsichordist Marcin Świątkiewicz and Krzysztof Firlus on viola da gamba, and the Equilibrium String Quartet with Tobias Koch on the period piano. They also experienced Karol Mossakowski, the organist of the Church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris, performing a live improvisation to F.W. Murnau's film Tabu, as well as a concert by the Orchestre National de Lyon led by Polish conductor Marta Gardolińska. She currently serves as the music director of the Opéra national de Lorraine, making her the first woman in history to lead the institution since its founding in 1758.

The Polish Focus programme will continue with two more concerts at Lyon’s Chapelle de la Trinité. On 24 March 2026, the Cohaere Ensemble will perform music by French and Gdańsk baroque composers. Later, on 25 June 2026, the Wrocław Baroque Ensemble will present an evening featuring works by J.S. Bach, Credo by Gdańsk-born Kaspar Förster Jr., and Conductus Funebris by Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki.

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