nastasia Rizikov

Anastasia Rizikov, nicknamed “The Red-Haired Pianist,” lives up to her colour. With a playing style full of contrasts, she intrigues and captivates. The Canadian-Ukrainian pianist asserts her musical style on stages around the world, grounding her freedom of expression in flawless technique. She has the courage to be herself — passionate, intense, and authentic.

In 2024, she released Shum, her debut album on Warner Classics – Erato, alongside cellist Lisa Strauss. With around thirty concertos in her repertoire, Anastasia Rizikov regularly performs as a soloist alongside internationally renowned orchestras. She also shares the stage with chamber music partners such as Gautier Capuçon and Daniel Lozakovich, in prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall in New York and the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing.

Born in Toronto to Ukrainian parents, Anastasia Rizikov won the Vladimir Horowitz International Competition in Kyiv at the age of 7 and made her debut with the Kyiv Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Mykola Dyadyura. That year marked the beginning of a series of first prizes she would go on to win across the globe. From the age of 12, she entered and won numerous competitions in the adult category. In 2015, at the age of 16, she took first prize at the International Piano Competition of Jaén, which led to her first recording on the Naxos label. At 18, she crossed the Atlantic to continue her studies in France, at the École Normale de Musique Alfred Cortot, and then at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris in Frank Braley’s class, from which she graduated in 2025.

She now performs alongside international artists such as Daniel Lozakovich and Gautier Capuçon, with whom she shares the stage across Asia, Europe, and North America. In 2023, they appeared together at the Beijing Performing Arts Center. During the same tour, they recorded a single to mark the centenary of Maria Callas.

In 2024, invited by President Emmanuel Macron for the Fête de la Musique at the Élysée Palace, Anastasia performed her own arrangement of a Gabriel Fauré melody as a soloist before an audience of 2,000 people, and invited cellist Victor Julien-Laferrière and clarinettist Pierre Génisson to join her on stage.

Anastasia Rizikov has around thirty concertos in her repertoire. This command of the concerto repertoire allows her to perform regularly with international orchestras: the Kyiv Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tbilisi Symphony Orchestra, the Hong Kong Philharmonic

Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Michigan Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Symphonique de Laval, the Niagara Symphony Orchestra, the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, Symphony Nova Scotia, the Balearic Islands Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Symphonique de l’Opéra de Limoges, and the Orchestre Philharmonique de l’Oise.

As a soloist and chamber musician, she performs in internationally renowned venues: the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, Carnegie Hall in New York, Roy Thompson Hall and Koerner Hall in Toronto, Hong Kong City Hall, the Palau de Música Catalana in Barcelona, the Auditorium Manuel de Falla in Granada, NOSPR in Katowice, the Kyiv Philharmonie, the Fazioli Hall in Sacile, the Opéra de Limoges, the Théâtre de Beauvais, the Grand Palais Éphémère, the Salle Cortot, the Élysée Palace, and the Quai d’Orsay in Paris. She is also a guest at numerous festivals: the Verbier Festival, the Gstaad New Year Music Festival, the Nohant Festival Chopin, the Festival d’Auvers-sur-Oise, the Biarritz Piano Festival, 1001 Notes en Limousin, Les Escales du classique, and Les Heures Musicales de Biot, among others.

Anastasia Rizikov has had the opportunity to meet and receive guidance from distinguished figures such as Menahem Pressler, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Yo-Yo Ma, Sir András Schiff, Emanuel Ax, Sergei Babayan, Fazıl Say, Nikolai Kapustin, and Ivry Gitlis.

Alongside her recitals, the pianist is involved in developing new concert formats. Each of her projects is built on meticulous artistic direction. Live performance is at the heart of her concerns — from lighting design and stagecraft to costume. With a keen interest in fashion, Anastasia Rizikov brings an innovative sartorial style to the stage and invites us to rethink the conventions of concert dress.

In 2022, she joined the Fondation Banque Populaire and the Fondation Gautier Capuçon, where she met Franco-Russian cellist Lisa Strauss. Together, they founded the Duo Shum, celebrating music from Eastern Europe, Central Europe, the Balkans, and Asia Minor. The word shum means “noise” in Ukrainian and Russian, evoking the Slavic roots of both musicians. In May 2024, they released Shum, their debut album on Warner Classics – Erato, in which they pay tribute to rare works from the 20th and 21st-century piano and cello repertoire, on a journey at the crossroads of East and West.

In 2025, following a concert at the Opéra de Limoges and a recital with soloists from the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse at L’Union, Anastasia Rizikov will perform J.S. Bach’s Concerto in D minor at the Théâtre de Poissy as part of the piano series L’Envol Musical. She will also appear alongside violinist Geza Hosszu-Legocky at the Salle Cortot as part of the Opus Cortot concert series. She will perform with Lisa Strauss at Musiques en Bazadais and at the Cité de la Musique et de la Danse de Soissons.

Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, the pianist has raised over €30,000 through charity concerts, donated to aid funds including the Canada-Ukraine Foundation and the Red Cross.

Anastasia Rizikov has been represented by the Hugo Panonacle Artist Agency since September 2023.