Collaborative pianist and vocal coach Kirill Kuzmin joins CCM’s faculty
Kuzmin is an accomplished teaching artist and a Grammy-nominated performer
UC College-Conservatory of Music Interim Dean Jonathan Kregor has announced the addition of Kirill Kuzmin to the college’s faculty of distinguished performing and media arts experts, researchers and educators. A Grammy-nominated collaborative pianist and vocal coach, Kuzmin begins his new role as Associate Professor of Opera/Vocal Coaching on Aug. 15, 2024.
New CCM faculty member Kirill Kuzmin. Photo/Lynn Lane
Kuzmin has served on the music staff at prestigious opera companies, festivals and concert organizations, including Houston Grand Opera (HGO), Aspen Music Festival, Wolf Trap Opera, Seiji Ozawa Music Academy, the Glimmerglass Festival and the Bolshoi Theater.
A graduate of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, Kuzmin called HGO his artistic home for nine seasons, where he worked on numerous productions including Salome, Eugene Onegin, Le nozze di Figaro, Faust, Giulio Cesare, West Side Story and the monumental Ring Cycle operas by Wagner.
In 2024, he joined the prestigious Seiji Ozawa Music Academy in Japan, working on the production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte as a harpsichordist.
Kuzmin’s recital appearances include how do I find you with Sasha Cooke at the San Francisco Symphony and the Schwabacher Debut Recital in San Francisco with baritone Sol Jin. In 2021, he was the pianist for video-streamed recitals with Arturo Chacun-Cruz, Sasha Cooke and Nicholas Phan.
In 2020, Kuzmin collaborated with the world-renowned mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke on the recording of the CD how do I find you, which features 17 art songs by modern American composers commissioned for this project. The CD was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2023.
A Russian native, Kuzmin spent three years with the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. During his time with the company, he served as opera coach and accompanist on several Russian operas, including Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges and Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tsar's Bride, as well as works from the standard operatic repertoire, such as Turandot, Der Rosenkavalier, La traviata and La sonnambula. While in Moscow, he also served as pianist and coach for various operatic projects by the acclaimed Moscow Philharmonic.
Passionate about Russian vocal music, Kuzmin has made it his mission to make the Russian repertoire more accessible to non-Russian speaking musicians. He is the author and creator of RussianIPA.com, a comprehensive resource on Russian lyric diction and repertoire.
Kuzmin holds degrees in piano performance from the Moscow Conservatory and in collaborative piano from the Moscow Conservatory and the University of Michigan, where he studied with renowned collaborative pianist Martin Katz.
"As an accomplished teaching artist and a lauded performer, Kirill Kuzmin is an ideal addition to CCM’s Opera and Voice programs, whose faculty provide world-class training by drawing on their ample experience as dedicated educators and sought-after practitioners in their respective fields,” said Kregor. “I would like to thank our search committee—which was chaired by Marie-France Lefebvre and included Amy Johnson, Donna Loewy, Elliot Madore and Stephen Meyer—for their excellent work.”
Next Lives Here
At the University of Cincinnati, we realize the impact our teaching, research, artistry and service can have on our community and the world. So, we don’t wait for change to happen. We break boundaries, boldly imagine and create what’s Next. To us, today’s possibilities spark tomorrow’s reality. That’s why we are leading urban public universities into a new era of innovation and impact, and that's how we are defining Next for the performing and media arts.
We're about engaging people and ideas - and transforming the world.
We are UC. Welcome to what's Next.
Featured image at top: New CCM faculty member Kirill Kuzmin seated at a Steinway piano. Photo/Kristin Hoebermann
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