“The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline

but rather the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity.” ― Glenn Gould

 

Kirill Zaborov is a French composer of both classical and contemporary music.

He is also a pianist and jazz drummer who favors improvised music.

His Russian roots and culture influences combine with those of his long-time home, France. He draws his inspiration from various aesthetic trends to create a work full of nostalgia that combines tradition and modernity

 

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He was born in 1970 in Minsk, Belarus and arrived in France at the age of eleven.

 

He began his musical journey five years later, studying drums with Pierre Faix and then with Gilles Grignon at ARPEJ, the Parisian Jazz School. He later studied piano and musical analysis with Gaël Mevel.

 

From 1994 to 1998, he formed several bands, composing and playing the drums in jazz clubs and festivals in Paris. Since 1998 he has been performing as a pianist and has partnered with Angelini, Yoni Zelnik, Frédéric Jeanne, Eric Sindorf, François Fuchs and Antti Mäkinen, among others.

 

Since the 2000s, his activity is divided between musical improvisation and musical writing. He composes works for piano and string quartet, as well as vocal music. At the same time, he performs in various contexts (cinema-concerts, live performances that mix music with other artistic domains) and writes music for documentary films.

 

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His music is regularly performed and created in France and abroad by renowned performers such as Jeffrey Grice, Guigla Katsarava, Ecaterina Baranov, Maria Masycheva, Ekaterina Mechetina, members of the Aron Quartett, and, more recently, Laurence Oldak, Jenny Lin and Giancarlo Crespeau. He recently undertook a new artistic collaboration with the French writer Maximilien Friche. 

 

Several French and international artists have recorded his works, including: Guigla Katsarava in And Dawn Emerges (Polymnie, 2009), the Aron Quartett in Paris-Vienna-Moscow (Preiser Records, 2010), Laurence Oldak in Dialogue (Fuga Libera, 2015), Jenny Lin in Prokofiev & Zaborov (Steinway & Sons, 2017) and Giancarlo Crespeau in Melancholia (Paraty, 2023).