A pianist of fiery temperament and virtuosity, Yulianna Avdeeva is the Gold Medalist of the 2010 International Chopin Piano Competition, which launched her to international fame for “consistently [leading] the field in terms of sheer passion and musicianship, not to mention technical security,” and for her “spontaneous and volatile” performances, “full of depth and colour” (The Telegraph). Yulianna plays with power, conviction, and sensibility, winning over audiences all over the world. “Her pacing is born of intelligent feeling and clarity of thought,” wrote The Guardian, “and her ability to finesse Chopin’s inner voices puts many to shame.”

A favorite artist in Europe, Yulianna has recurring concert engagements at the Warsaw Philharmonic, Rudolfinum in Prague, Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, Vienna Konzerthaus, and Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. She recently performed recital debuts at the Salzburg and Gstaad festivals, and at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.

Highlights of Yulianna’s 2025-26 season include a recital tour to Korea and China; the “Chopin and his Europe Festival” in Warsaw; recital debuts at Musikverein Vienna, Cologne Philharmonic Hall, Berlin Philharmonic Hall, La Jolla Music Society, Philip Lorenz International Keyboard Concerts, Houston’s DACAMERA series, Festival de Tannay, in Switzerland, Società del Quartetto di Milano, and Music Center De Bijloke, in Belgium. She also returns to Círculo de Bellas Artes, in Madrid, for a full performance of Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87—which she will also perform at the “Chopin and his Europe Festival”—and to the Rudolf Firkušný Piano Festival, in Prague, for a solo recital of excerpts from Op. 87 at the Rudolfinum.

Orchestral performances, as soloist, include Beethoven with David Danzmayr and the Seattle Symphony; Brahms with Mark Wigglesworth and the Bournemouth Symphony; a return to the Pittsburgh Symphony for Prokofiev with Rafael Payare; Rachmaninoff with Santtu-Matias Rouvali and Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin;      Chopin with Simone Young and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal; Bartók with Omer Meir and WDR Cologne Radio Orchestra; Chopin with Dinis Sousa and the Dresden Philharmonic; Beethoven with Victor Julien-Laferrière and Orchestre Consuelo at Festival La Chaise-Dieu; and Chopin with Tomàs Grau and the Franz Schubert Filharmonia. Her recent appearance at the Gewandhaus Shostakovich Festival is followed this season with a European tour playing Rachmaninoff with Andris Nelsons and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Upcoming chamber music performances include a tour with the Belcea Quartet and concerts in Vienna, Hamburg, Berlin, and Madrid.

Yulianna’s 2024-25 season included a Carnegie Hall re-engagement, after her sold-out recital debut in 2023 at the storied venue; she returned with a program of Chopin and Liszt—including the latter’s Piano Sonata in B Minor—which she also played in Spain, Germany, the U.S., France, Austria and Italy. She also performed Tchaikovsky with the New York Philharmonic at Bravo! Vail Music Festival; made her Celebrity Series of Boston debut performing Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” Sonata and selections by Liszt; gave a recital at the Rockport Chamber Music Festival; and several concerts at the Seattle Chamber Music Festival with violinist James Ehnes.

In partnership with the Boston Symphony, the Gewandhaus Orchestra created a Festival marking the 50th anniversary of the death of Shostakovich, which featured Yulianna in performances of the entire Op. 87 in spring 2025. Besides the Gewandhaus, she performed the entire cycle at Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin; Palau de la Música in Barcelona; Saitama Arts Center, in Tokyo; Festival de Lanaudière, in Quebec; National Centre for the Performing Arts, in Beijing; Ostrava, in the Czech Republic; and Seon, in Switzerland, among others.

Her 2023-24 season included performances of Chopin in her debut with the Chicago Symphony; Beethoven with the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, and with the Pacific Symphony; Mozart with the Baltimore Symphony; Prokofiev with the Pittsburgh Symphony; Chopin with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra; Bernstein with Orchestra RAI; and Grieg with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia. She also performed at Pierre Boulez Saal and at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie.

Some of Yulianna’s other orchestral collaborators include the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philharmonia, London Philharmonic, Stuttgart SDR Orchestra, WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, City of Birmingham Symphony, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Finnish and Danish Radio symphonies, Czech Philharmonic, Sinfonieorchester Basel, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, KBS Symphony, and Yomiuri Nippon Symphony.

A recording artist praised by critics, Yulianna recently released three albums on PENTATONE: Resilience (2023, consisting of works by Weinberg, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, and Szpilman); Chopin: Voyage (2024, featuring the composer’s late works); and a complete recording of Shostakovich’s Op. 87 (2025). “That in Avdeeva’s hands… the music’s searing expressivity [comes] across so readily—and with the directness of something much more familiar (say, The Well-Tempered Clavier)—is remarkable,” wrote Boston’s The Arts Fuse about the latter. “It’s a testament to that rarest of syntheses: a total identification of a musician with her repertoire.”

Yulianna’s recordings of the Chopin concertos with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century and Frans Brüggen (2013), her three solo albums featuring works by Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, and Prokofiev (2014, 2016, 2017), and her collaboration with Gidon Kremer in Weinberg’s chamber music (2017 and 2019) are a formidable record of her art, topped off by a Deutsche Grammophon (2015) solo recording as part of a milestone 11-disc collection dedicated to Chopin Competition Gold Medalists from 1927 to 2010.

In 2025 Yulianna launched the online project #AvdeevaShostakovichProject, where she discusses and plays each of the 24 Preludes and Fugues. The project accompanied #YuliannasMusicalDialogues, an open space for her followers and all piano fans to share their passion for music. Through regular informal social media posts, Yulianna invites followers to choose the composer of the month, opening an online conversation about each composer’s life and work, focusing on notable pieces. Through short instructive videos, Yulianna deconstructs and demonstrates the art of performance, highlighting aspects like phrasing, technique, and style. Piano aficionados around the world also enjoyed Yulianna’s online educational project #AvdeevaBachProject, which she offered throughout the Covid-19 lockdown, gaining over half a million views.