Zhanar Suleimanova
Zhanar Suleimanova was born in Almaty in the family of scientists. She began her musical studies at the age of 4 years. From 1981 to 1992 Zhanar studied in the Kulyash Baiseitova Republican Specialized Music School for gifted children both in the piano class (teachers: Menzia Daukeyeva and professor Zhaniya Aubakirova) and in the composition class (teachers: Bahtiyar Amanzholov and professor Gaziza Zhubanova). Zhanar Suleimanova finished the school with the Gold Medal both as a pianist and as a composer.
From 1992 to 1997 she studied in Gnessin’s Russian Academy of Music in Moscow as a pianist with the professor Arkady Sevidov, and from 1997 to 1999 was a post-graduate student at P.I. Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory (classes of the professors Natalya Trull and Yelena Richter).
Since January 2000 to present, Zhanar is a soloist of the Zhambyl Kazakh State Philharmonic Society in Almaty, Kazakhstan. She continues to develop her piano skills taking numerous master-classes of the European professors, as Klaus Hellwig (Germany), Walter Krafft (Germany), Vincenzo Balzani (Italy).
In 2006 Zhanar became a scholarship-holder of the Italian Government and received Conservatory Training at the Milan Conservatory “Giuseppe Verdi” with the professor Paolo Bordoni (1 November, 2006-1 February 2007).
Zhanar has won several prizes of different Piano Competition. In 1990 she won the Republican Competition receiving the First Prize. In 1991 she received the First Prize of the Regional Competition in Tashkent (Uzbekistan). In April 1992 she was the finalist of the Missouri Southern International Piano Competition in Joplin, USA. In August 2000 Zhanar received Diploma of Finalist and Silver Medal of Finalist of the International Competition “Palma d’Oro” in Italy, Liguria; and in March 2014 received “Ricardo Vines” Prize of the International Piano Competition of Orleans, France (OCI). This Competition is specialized on the music of the Twentieth and Twenty First Centuries. The prize was received for the best performance of the French work written from 1900 to 1940.
Zhanar has been a scholarship-holder of different countries: the scholarship “New names” of the Russian Cultural Foundation received in December 1992, the possibility of free education and the scholarship of the Gnessin’s Russian Academy of Music in 1994, “Rildia Bee O’Bryan Cliburn” Scholarship of Baylor University in Waco, Texas, USA (1994), the Scholarship of the President of Kazakhstan (1997), above-mentioned Italian scholarship (2006).
Zhanar began her concert activity at the age of 7; she performed as a soloist with orchestra at the age of 9; her first solo recital was given at the age of 14. During her concert activity, Zhanar gave hundreds of concerts, among them more than 160 recitals performing not only in Kazakhstan, but also in Russia (Moscow, Saint –Petersburg), in Italy (Milan, Meran, Varallo), in Germany (Munich (“Gasteig”), Lenggries, Mittenwald, Fellbach), USA (Joplin). The prestigious halls where the pianist played recitals or solo performances are Rachmaninov and Small of Moscow Conservatory, the Hall of the Composers’ Society in Moscow, the Hall of the Palace of Youth in Moscow, the Hall of the All-Russian Musical Society in Moscow, the Hall of the House of Scientists in St. Petersburg, the Hall of the Cultural Foundation in Moscow, the Small Hall at Philharmonie im Gasteig in Munich(recital), recitals in different historical castles in Germany and Italy, “Sala Puccini” of Milan Conservatory.
Zhanar Suleimanova played as a soloist with different orchestras of Kazakhstan in Almaty, Astana and Karaganda with internationally renowned conductors as Tolepbergen Abdrashev (Kazakhstan), Christophe Mangou (France), Nicolas Krauze (France), Vag Papyan (Israel), Rashid Skuratov (Tatarstan, Russia), Kazakhstani conductors Kanat Akhmetov, Pavel Tarasevitch, Erbolat Akhmedyarov, Arman Urazgaliyev and others.