Piotr Alexewicz: 2025 Cliburn Semfinal Recital (Schumann, Chopin, Gershwin)

Seventeenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition
Semifinal Round Recital
June 1, 2025
Bass Performance Hall

Piotr Alexewicz
Poland
Age 25

SCHUMANN Fantasie in C Major, op. 17
CHOPIN Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor, op. 35
GERSHWIN Three Preludes

About Piotr
Pure curiosity led a 4-year-old Piotr Alexewicz to explore an old upright piano that had belonged to the family for years. Though it had stood silent for a long time, it became the spark for a musical journey that began not with discipline, but with playfulness and wonder. Once he’d discovered the piano, it quickly became a fun pastime; it wasn’t until Piotr heard the Rachmaninov Third Piano Concerto performed live that music became a need in his life. By his own telling: “The power and emotion of the music struck me deeply, revealing that music was more than just notes—it was a language of its own, one I desperately wanted to speak.” He went on to study under Paweł Zawadzki at the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in his hometown of Wrocław and is now in Switzerland at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste with Konstantin Scherbakov. Another deeply influential figure in his musical education was Nikolai Demidenko. 

Concert engagements have taken him to Germany, Italy, Romania, the United Kingdom, Denmark, France, Switzerland, Cyprus, the United States, Morocco, and Brazil. Recent notable career highlights include the release of three albums since 2019; a 2023 tour of Japan with the Berliner Symphoniker and Hansjörg Schellenberger; the Zbigniew Drzewiecki Special Prize at the 2021 International Chopin Competition in Warsaw, a concerto competition win at the 2024 PianoTexas Festival, where he performed at Van Cliburn Concert Hall at TCU with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and Miguel Harth-Bedoya, and a second place finish at the 2025 Hilton Head International Piano Competition, as well as prizes at competitions in Paris and Bucharest. 

A polyglot of four languages, Piotr has been often honored as a favorite son of his homeland, including the inaugural "Young Promoter of Poland" award from the First Lady of Poland for advancing the country’s culture abroad. It’s curiosity still that brings him to music: “I draw inspiration from the richness of human experiences, cultures, and the world around me. Meeting interesting people from diverse backgrounds, traveling to new places, and immersing myself in different cultures constantly broaden my perspective, both musically and personally.”