Kirill Gerstein / Photo by Marco Borggreve

Kirill Gerstein, the pianist who played here in October with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, has won the 2010 Gilmore Artist Award. One of the richest prizes in classical music, the Gilmore pays out $300,000 to winners over a 4-year period. It is based not a big keyboard-pounding competition, but on the verdict of judges who listen to recordings and attend concerts anonymously.

Born in southwestern Russia, Gerstein, 30, studied both jazz and classical in Russia and later at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Since leaving the conservatory he has played with major world orchestras. Go here for a Star Tribune review of his concerts with the SPCO in mid-October last year, when he played the Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 2.

Given every four years, the Gilmore has previously gone to Ingrid Fliter, Piotr Anderszewski, Leif Ove Andsnes, Ralf Gothoni and David Owen Norris.

At this point, Gerstein has no Twin Cities dates in the next year.

His website posts video clips, including this one, of him playing Rachmaninoff's 3rd Piano Concerto with Gustavo Dudamel and the Simon Bolivar Youth Symphony Orchestra: