Virtuoso Pianist Andrey Gugnin Brings Award-Winning Brilliance to St John the Evangelist

Andrey Gugnin, winner of the Classic Piano International Competition 2024, will present a dazzling recital at St John the Evangelist Church on 31 July 2025. His programme, featuring Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty suites alongside Stravinsky’s Petrushka and The Firebird, promises an evening of brilliance, colour, and virtuosity.

On Thursday, 31 July 2025, the historic St John the Evangelist Church will open its doors to a spellbinding evening of music with internationally acclaimed pianist Andrey Gugnin. Beginning at 19:30, the concert promises an unforgettable journey through some of the most dazzling orchestral masterworks of Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky, reimagined for the piano with breathtaking virtuosity.

The programme opens with Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite for Solo Piano, a sparkling adaptation of the beloved ballet filled with whimsy, elegance, and irresistible charm. Gugnin then turns to Stravinsky’s Petrushka (Three Movements), a tour de force of rhythmic energy, colour, and pianistic brilliance that captures the spirit of the ballet’s puppet-hero with electrifying immediacy.

After the interval, Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty Suite offers an enchanting contrast, blending lyrical beauty with moments of majestic grandeur. The concert concludes with highlights from Stravinsky’s The Firebird – the Infernal Dance, Berceuse, and Finale – a sequence that moves from fiery intensity to serene lyricism before culminating in one of the most triumphant conclusions in all of music.

Praised for his “staggering technique and mastery of musical narrative” (Gramophone), Andrey Gugnin is the winner of the Classic Piano International Competition 2024 in Dubai, where he triumphed with a performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3. He previously won the 2016 Sydney International Piano Competition and the 2014 Gina Bachauer Piano Competition, and has since appeared on the world’s most prestigious stages, including Carnegie Hall in New York, Wigmore Hall in London, Vienna’s Musikverein, and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall. He has performed with leading orchestras such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic, Mariinsky Orchestra, and Utah Symphony, collaborating with distinguished conductors including Valery Gergiev and Jaap van Zweden.

This concert at St John the Evangelist Church offers audiences a unique opportunity to experience Gugnin’s artistry in an intimate setting, as he brings to life two of Russia’s greatest composers with brilliance and passion.