Dina Ugorskaja

Born in Leningrad (now once more Saint Petersburg) into an artistic family of Jewish origin, Dina Ugorskaja started learning the piano when she was young, as well as voice and composition. In 1990, when she was fifteen years old, she became the target of anti-Semitic threats; her family had to leave the Soviet Union abruptly, and they fled together to Germany.
The “philosopher at the piano” has made herself a name with a performance style marked by profound sensitivity and sobriety.
Her engagements have led her to make solo appearances at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the Liederhalle in Stuttgart, the Philharmonie in Cologne, the Herkulessaal in Munich, the Sala Verdi in Milan, and Radio France Auditorium in Paris. She has been invited to perform at festivals including the Schubertiade in Feldkirch and the Kassel Music Festival.

Dina Ugorskaja is also passionately committed to chamber music: for instance, ever since her participation at Lars Vogt’s chamber music festival Spannungen in Heimbach, she has formed a duo together with the renowned cellist Tanja Tetzlaff.
2019 marked the 10th anniversary of her fruitful collaboration with the CAvi-Music label. In coproduction with Bavarian Radio (Munich), she has released recordings of Handel suites, late Schumann works, the six last Beethoven sonatas, and both volumes of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier – all of which have been praised by critics.

Regarding her recording of Beethoven’s Hammerklavier sonata, Eleonore Büning wrote in the Frankfurter Allgemeine: The immense Adagio sostenuto, bearing the indication that it is to be played ‘passionately and with much feeling’, is rendered as a sublime, radiant hymn, and one would no longer want to hear it any other way.
Regarding her recording of the Well-Tempered Clavier, Crescendo magazine wrote in October 2016: The listener does not feel directly addressed, but rather as the silent witness of these intimate dialogues between Bach, God, and the universe – thanks to the fact that Dina Ugorskaja always maintains a noble distance that protects the inner fragility of Bach’s musical discourse. […] This is an impressive manifesto for the freedom of the human intellect.” Ugorskaja’s recordings for CAvi-music have been repeatedly nominated for the International Classical Music Awards and for the German Music Critics’ Prize. Her last album with works by Schubert received the ICMA award posthum.
​​​​​​​ Dina Ugorskaja passed away after a long period of illness in September 2019.