By Grigor Atanesian.
Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy are celebrities in the world of classical music. As concert pianists, they have performed at major classical venues like Royal Albert Hall in London and the Konzerthaus Berlin but also more unexpected places, from the Munich Security Conference to the Gagosian gallery in France and a former car park in Peckham.
They have been a couple for over a decade now, but this year they joined forces to play together on one piano, reviving the somewhat forgotten genre of four-hands piano music. As a duo, they performed at the Carnegie Hall in New York and the Southbank Centre in London, and recorded a joint album that topped the UK classical music chart.
Samson and Pavel’s story is an example of a different kind of Russian men from the type we are used to hearing about on the news. They are not fighting in Ukraine or fleeing mobilisation.
They are also openly gay and partners off stage, breaking with the Russian tradition of gay artists and performers hiding their sexuality due to the arts and classical music’s reliance on government funding and state-sponsored homophobia.
Filmed and edited by Derrick Evans. Additional camera by Kyrean Ng. Produced by Grigor Atanesian. With thanks to Christopher Booth.
Read this story in Russian here.
Russian émigré pianists, breaking with tradition on and off stage