Biography

Maksim Štšura is an Estonian pianist, composer and music scholar based in London. He performs extensively as soloist and chamber musician in the prestigious concert halls across the United Kingdom, including St Martin-in-the-Fields, Purcell Room and the Wigmore Hall.

He received his Master of Music degree from the Royal College of Music in 2013, studying under Gordon Fergus-Thompson and has also completed the prestigious Artist Diploma course with him in 2014. He previously graduated from the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre where he studied with Ivari Ilja. In 2008-09, he participated in an Erasmus exchange at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, where he worked with Volker Banfield. In 2008. His Masters studies were generously supported by a Somers-Mountfort scholarship, the AHRC Study Award, the Estonian Capital of Culture Study Award and the Kristjan Jaak Scholarship. Maksim was a Mills Williams Junior Fellow for 2013-14. In 2014 Maksim has started his Doctoral course at the RCM, supported by a Leverhulme Postgraduate Studentship and Mr Nigel Woolner. His research is focused on the piano transcriptions of the contemporary orchestral scores.

Maksim has performed in masterclasses with musicians including Dmitry Bashkirov, Stephen Hough, John Lill, Barry Douglas, Nina Seryogina, Veera Gornostayeva, Daniel Pollack, Tamas Ungar and Eliso Virsaladze.

He has won prizes in several international competitions, including First Prizes at the 7th Estonian Piano Competition (2008), the Steinway-Klavierspiel-Wettbewerb in Germany (2004), the International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition in Estonia (2000) and other awards including Third Prize at the International ‘Young Musician’ Competition in Estonia (2002) and the Laureate Prize at the International Jevgeny Mravinski Competition in Russia (2001). Additionally, Maksim was awarded both a Yamaha (2008) and a Helmi Valtman (2010) scholarship. In 2013 Maksim won the First Prize at the Intercollegiate Beethoven Piano Competition.

Maksim has performed extensively in the UK, Germany, Austria, Holland, Finland, Estonia and Russia. He has appeared as soloist with orchestras such as the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Saint Petersburg State Academic Symphony Orchestra, The National Opera Estonia Symphony Orchestra, The Symphony Orchestra of Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, and Narva Town Symphony Orchestra. He has performed with conductors including Nikolai Alexeev, Paul Magi, Aleksandr Titov, Jüri Alperten, Anatoli Stsura, Mihhail Gerts and Simon Thompson.

Photo credit: Kaupo Kikkas

Musicians’ Company Award: Beethoven Medal 2013

Page Last Updated: 2013