Martin Labazevitch & Stanislav Khristenko

raised by critics for his lyricism, virtuosity and an intensity of performance, pianist Martin Labazevitch appeared in many concert halls and festivals in Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Finland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Peru and the United States. 

Born in Poland, Mr. Labazevitch studied at the Odessa Conservatory in Ukraine and at the Manhattan School of Music in New York. In 2019 he received Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Rome School of Music, Drama and Art in Washington D.C. His main teachers and mentors include Nina Svetlanova, Horacio Gutierrez, Dmitri Bashkirov, Bella Davidovich and Jorge Luis Prats. He has been a soloist with orchestras in Spain, Poland, Lithuania, Japan, and the United States. Of his debut album release on the Delos label, of the Chopin Concerto with the Beethoven Academy Orchestra lead by Ewa Strusinska, the Fanfare Magazine wrote: “His way of Chopin is fluid and convincing. He plays with a superb control of rubato and has the most beautiful way of melting a phrase.” Of the same album, ConcertoNet wrote, “...he pleasantly refrains from overtaxing Chopin’s conclusive Allegro vivace with shimmering grandeur and eloquent precision that could even rival that of Arthur Rubinstein.” 

Mr. Labazevitch is a recipient of the Harold Bauer Award, for the most promising pianist at the Manhattan School of Music, Grand Prize at the Artists International Competition in New York, winner of the La Gesse Foundation Auditions in Washington D.C. as well as the winner of the Rome School of Music Concerto Competition in Washington D.C., performing Brahms Piano Concerto No.1, Op.15. He is the Cultural Ambassador of the city of Stalowa Wola, Poland and in 2025 he received the Kosciuszko Foundation Appreciation Award.  

An avid chamber musician, he has collaborated with Isidore Cohen, Lukas Foss, Ruth Laredo, Andrés Cárdenes, Amit Peled, Alexander Fiterstein, Ju-Young Baek, Michael Mermagen, as well as the Spokane, Mount Vernon Virtuosi and Vilnius String Quartets. After his piano trio debut at Carnagie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, The Strad Magazine wrote: “... exuberant, multi-faceted, ...gripping from first note to the last.” 

Mr. Labazevitch has worked with several prominent contemporary composers, such as Lukas Foss, Richard Danielpour, Sharon Farber and Lori Laitman.  

Performance highlights of the recent seasons include: Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York, Terrace Theater at Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Damme Myra Hess Series in Chicago, Chopin Foundation in Miami, Seattle Chamber Music Society and the Philharmonic Society of Lima, Peru. 

An enthusiastic educator, Mr. Labazevitch has been sharing his passion for teaching with students at the Levine School of Music in Washington D.C. He is also the Co-Founder of the Berkshire Piano Academy, in Massachusetts as well as the Artistic Director of the Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Piano Competition and Chopin Piano Academy in Washington D.C., the oldest Chopin contest in the United States of which Van Cliburn, Murray Perahia, Kirill Gerstein and many other luminaries of the piano world became the laureates. In 2022 Mr. Labazevitch co-founded The Paderewski Academy, a pioneer hybrid piano academy based in Zurich, Switzerland. 

Mr. Labazevitch is a Steinway Artist.

Described as a “poet of piano” by Le Soir (Belgium), Ukrainian-born American pianist Stanislav Khristenko has performed in some of the world’s major concert halls. He has been praised for “emotional intensity”, “charismatic expression”, “palette of touches”, “solid” and “precise technique” by The New York Times, The Washington Post and Miami Herald, The Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine and El Pais. 

Khristenko has appeared as a piano soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra, National Orchestra of Belgium, Phoenix Symphony, Liege Royal Philharmonic, Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as Bilbao, Madrid, Tenerife, Puerto Rico, Richmond symphony orchestras, among others. His performance highlights include solo recitals at Carnegie Hall, Vienna Konzerthaus, Palais de Beaux-Arts in Brussels, as well as performances with orchestras in The Berlin Philharmonie, Seoul Arts Center, Prague Rudolfinum, Moscow Conservatory Great Hall, among others. Khristenko’s performance as a piano soloist with The Lviv National Orchestra of Ukraine in Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall has been chosen as one of 15 highlights of the 2022/2023 Carnegie Hall season by The New York Times. 

His recordings were released on Steinway & Sons label (“Fantasies”, “Romeo and Juliet”), Naxos (“Soler Sonatas”), Oehms (“Krenek: Piano Works”), and Toccata Classics (“Ernst Krenek Piano Works: Volume One”, “Ernst Krenek Piano Works: Volume Two”). He is a Steinway Spirio Artist with a significant presence in the Spirio recording library. 

Khristenko is a prizewinner of numerous piano competitions including Gold Medal at Cleveland Piano Competition, First Prize at Maria Canals Piano Competition, Second Prizes at Isang Yun and Takamatsu Piano Competitions, and Fourth Prize at Queen Elisabeth Music Competition. In the United States, he also received First Prizes at Bosendorfer, Jose Iturbi, Virginia Waring, and Wideman Competitions, among others. He has been on the jury panel of many international piano competitions. 

In his hometown in Ukraine, Khristenko co-founded music festival KharkivMusicFest that presented world’s top classical musicians as well as unique projects including Festival Orchestra, classical music conference, Children’s Orchestra, artist-designed pianos for interactive public display. As a Music Director, he founded Nova Sinfonietta Chamber Orchestra of Ukraine that performed works of over 40 composers in its first three seasons. 

Khristenko gave his first piano solo recital in Kharkiv Philharmonic Hall at the age of 11. He graduated from Moscow Chopin College and Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where he studied with Vera Gornostaeva. In 2008, he moved to the United States to study with Sergei Babayan at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He also completed Postgraduate Artistic Training in Orchestral Conducting at The Chopin University in Warsaw, Poland and Short Course in Orchestral Conducting at The Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England. 

In 2024, Khristenko was appointed Assistant Professor of Piano in the Michigan State University College of Music. 

Stanislav Khristenko is a Steinway Artist.