Peter Laul studied at the Middle Special Lyceum School of the St Petersburg State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire in the class of Alexander Sandler, under whom he continued his studies and completed a post-graduate course at the St Petersburg State Conservatoire itself. Since 2002 he has taught a special piano class at the conservatoire and the lyceum school, and since 2015 he has been an assistant professor at the conservatoire.
Peter Laul has won prizes at the Bremen International Competition (Germany, 1995, 3rd prize and special prize for the best performance of a work by Bach; 1997, 1st prize and special prize for the best performance of a sonata by Schubert) and the Scriabin International Competition in Moscow (Russia, 2000, 1st prize).
The pianist regularly performs at the St Petersburg Philharmonic, the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, the Steinway Hall and the Lincoln Center in New York, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Suntory Hall and Opera City Hall in Tokyo, the Brucknerhaus in Linz and the Sala Verdi in Milan. He has taken part in festivals in Colmar and Saint-Riquier (France), the Progetto Marta Argerich festival (Lugano), the Art-November festival (Moscow), the Printemps des Arts festival (Monaco), the Stars of the White Nights festival, the International Piano Festival and the Arts Square festival (St Petersburg).
Orchestras with which he regularly collaborates include the Academic Symphony Orchestra of the St Petersburg Philharmonic (Honoured Ensemble of Russia), the Mariinsky Orchestra, the Moscow Symphony Orchestra and the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie as well as theatre orchestras in Dessau, Bremerhaven and Oldenburg.
The pianist dedicates particular attention to chamber music. His regular partners include Ilya Gringolts, Maxim Vengerov, Viktor Tretiakov, Graf Mourja, Alena Baeva, Ekaterina Semenchuk, Alexander Ghindin, Sergei Levitin, David Grimal, Laurent Korcia and Marc Coppey.
He has produced recordings for Radio France, Radio Bremen, radio Orpheus (Russia), the TV channels Arte (France), Culture, RTR and Petersburg – Channel 5 (Russia). His discography includes several solo and chamber recordings for Naxos, Aeon, Onyx, BIS, Harmonia Mundi, Querstand, Integral Classic, King Records and Northern Flowers. Among his most prominent recordings are works by Scriabin (2006), the complete Brahms trios and cello sonatas (2007, 2008), the complete Schumann violin sonatas and trios (2010) and the complete Stravinsky violin works.
In the 2007-2008 season he performed the Three Centuries of the Piano Sonata concert series at the St Petersburg Philharmonic, and in 2015 he presented the 32 Ludwig van Beethoven Sonatas concert series at the St Petersburg Philharmonic and the Tartu University.
Engagements for the current season include performances with Ilya Gringolts at the Wigmore Hall in London, Graf Mourja at the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, concerts at the Small and Great Halls of the St Petersburg Philharmonic.
In 2003 Peter Laul was presented with an honorary award by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation “For Achievements in Culture.”
Information for December 2018