Ivan Bessonov is a young Russian musician: pianist and composer. While still very young, he, together with his two younger brothers, won the Blue Bird television competition. And in 2018, at the age of 16, Bessonov became the first Russian laureate of the "classical" Eurovision Song Contest in the history of the contest - Eurovision Young Musicians. Moreover, by the leadership of the Russia-1 TV channel, he was chosen as the herald of Russia for Eurovision-2019: he announced the results of the performers, and also starred in a video postcard representing our country.
Childhood and youth. Family of musicians
Ivan Alekseevich Bessonov is the first-born in the musical family of violinist Maria Bessonova and composer and sound engineer Aleksey Grigoriev. Ivan was born on July 24, 2002 in St. Petersburg. Three years later, brother Daniel was born, and two years later, brother Nikita. The parents made an original decision: all children bear the father's patronymic and the mother's surname. In the house of Bessonova - Grigoriev, music always sounded, and it is natural that all three sons learned it from childhood: Ivan mastered the piano, Daniel - the violin, and Nikita - both of these instruments.
Until the age of five, Ivan was only a listener, but one day his father sat down at the piano, sat his son on his lap and began to pick up the song “A Christmas tree was born in the forest” with him. There was no limit to the child's surprise - it turns out that you can create music yourself! Thus began the career of the virtuoso pianist Ivan Bessonov. At the age of six, the boy entered a music school, but studying there did not always bring him pleasure: while Ivan's friends were walking on the street, playing football, the young pianist had to sit at the instrument and work hard. It happened that he even rebelled against musical studies, and when he grew up, he began to come up with all sorts of tricks - for example, he wrote down his exercises in the memory of an electronic piano, and then played the recording while he was doing other things.
The outstanding musical talent of Ivan Bessonov, like his brothers, helped to overcome all children's contradictions, and the young man completely focused on his work. Ivan brilliantly studied at the St. Petersburg Children's Music School (Children's Music School) named after Sofia Lyakhovitskaya. Here his piano teachers were Olga Andreevna Kurnavina and Eleonora Petrovna Margulis - they laid the technical, creative and emotional basis for the mastery of the novice pianist of genius.
While studying at the Lyceum, Ivan constantly performed at concerts of various levels, began touring cities in Russia and abroad, and also took part in various competitions - for example, he won six competitions for the performance of etudes held annually at the St. Petersburg Music Lyceum. "Kikiny Chambers"; in 2015 he won the Chopin International Competition, and in 2016 - the Rubinstein International Competition “Piano Miniature in Russian Music” in his native St. Petersburg; won the Grand Prix at the Young Talents competition organized by the government of St. Petersburg, etc.
Moving to Moscow
An important milestone in the biography of Ivan Bessonov was the move to Moscow. In the summer of 2016, he received an invitation to continue his education at the Secondary Special Music School (SSMSh) at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory. The whole family moved to the capital, and in September Ivan Bessonov became a student of the Secondary School of Music; his teachers for special piano are Vadim Leonidovich Rudenko and Valery Vladimirovich Pyasetsky.
Viewers of the Russia-1 television channel will remember the participation and triumphant victory of Ivan Bessonov and his brothers Daniel and Nikita in the Blue Bird competition for young talents in the 2016-2017 season. In the final of the project, the Bessonovs trio performed tango from the film "The Smell of a Woman"; in the process of performing the sons were joined by their mother - violinist Maria Bessonova; the audience and the jury were delighted.
It was at the Blue Bird competition that Ivan Bessonov met and developed a creative friendship with Denis Matsuev, the famous Russian pianist. And here the decision was made by the jury and the management of the Russia-1 TV channel to send Bessonov to represent our country at the 2018 classic Eurovision Song Contest in Edinburgh.
Eurovision
Classic Eurovision, in contrast to pop, is held once every two years. In 2018, 18 young performers of classical music from different countries competed in the Scottish city of Edinburgh, including the Russian Ivan Bessonov. And in all 26 years of the existence of this competition, for the first time, a victory went to a representative of Russia: on August 23, 2018, the world recognized the name of Ivan Bessonov, all the news media covering world cultural events reported about him. In the final of the competition, Bessonov played the third part of the famous First Piano Concerto for Piano and Orchestra by P. I. Tchaikovsky. With his brilliant performance, he delighted the audience and the jury, which included, in particular, the American conductor Marine Alsop and the English composer James Macmillan.
According to the recollections of Ivan himself, while playing on stage, he was absolutely calm, but then behind the scenes he was pretty worried in anticipation of summing up. Even when the results were announced and applause was heard in the hall, the young musician could not immediately believe in his victory. All our compatriots who followed the competition on the live broadcast of the Kultura TV channel greeted Ivan Bessonov's triumph with great joy. Bessonov's victory automatically means that the next classic Eurovision will be held in Russia in 2020.
It is quite logical that the winner of the satellite contest was chosen as the herald of the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest. During the broadcast of the finale, when the presentation of Russia and its representative Sergei Lazarev began, Ivan Bessonov appeared on TV screens of all countries - a handsome, fair-haired young man playing the piano. The shooting of the video postcard took place in St. Petersburg, Ivan's hometown. After the performance of the contestants, Bessonov also announced the results of the vote from our country (it was originally planned that the singer Alsou would do it, but the plans of the leadership changed).
Creativity of the composer and pianist
According to Ivan, he always composes music: it constantly sounds in his head, but there is not always enough time to sit down and record new musical material. However, he is the author of several works, some of which are available on the Internet. In 2015, director Viktor Kosakovsky heard one of these works by Bessonov and asked the young man to use this music in the short documentary Varicella (Chickenpox) about the difficult everyday life of two young ballerinas - sisters Polina and Nastya, students of the Academy of Russian Ballet. So Ivan Bessonov made his debut as a composer in cinema.
As a pianist, Ivan Bessonov constantly gives concerts, goes on tour throughout Russia and around the world, represents our country at various competitions. The pianist performs together with such outstanding Russian conductors as Vladimir Spivakov and Valery Gergiev. In March 2019, Ivan Bessonov received the title of "Discovery of the Year" and became a laureate of the International Music Award "BraVo". At the same time, the company "Ars Production" released the first disc of the young pianist with the performance of works by F. Chopin, as well as his own compositions.
Personal life
Ivan Bessonov is very young and has not yet had time to start a family. Ivan is not only talented, but also incredibly handsome, smart and charming - naturally, such a charismatic young man has a crowd of fans. However, the young man does not advertise his personal life, never talks about any romantic hobbies. He lives in constant time trouble: tours, performances, studies, independent studies … Well, if there is free time, Ivan uses it for sports: he loves football very much, but in order to avoid injuries he plays only with his brothers; he also goes in for swimming, rides a bicycle and roller skates, plays chess with his brothers, enjoys creating funny home videos and reads a lot - the works of Bunin, Chekhov, Jack London.
