Yevgeny Kisin: I do not perform in Turkey because of Armenian Genocide factor

• Tuesday, September 25, 18:02

 "I do not perform in Turkey because of Armenian Genocide factor," Yevgeny Kisin, world famous pianist, told mass media in Yerevan, on September 25.  Kisin admitted that he does not visit some countries for political reasons. Besides Turkey, his black list comprises also China.

"I don't want to visit China after I had lived under the red flag for 20 years," he said. Kisin is performing in Armenia for the first time over 28 years, but he donated big amounts of money to the vulnerable families in the earthquake-stricken Armenian towns of Gyumri and Spitak.  His September 27 concert in Yerevan will be charitable as well. Kisin will donate his $25,000 reward for implementation of humanitarian programs in Spitak. He will perform in Yerevan on
sidelines of the Yerevan Perspectives Music Festival.

Many musical awards and tributes from around the world have been showered upon Kissin. In 1987 he received the Crystal Prize of the Osaka Symphony Hall for the best performance of the year 1986 (his first performance in Japan). In 1991 he received the Musician of the Year Prize from the Chigiana Academy of Music in Siena, Italy. He was special guest at the 1992 Grammy Awards Ceremony, broadcast live to an audience estimated at over one billion, and became Musical America's youngest Instrumentalist of the Year in 1995 etc.  Kissin makes regular recital tours of Europe, America and Asia. He has
performed with nearly all the leading orchestras of the world, under such conductors as Claudio Abbado, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, Sir Colin Davis, Valery Gergiev and others.