Following the release of her Piano Classics discs of Chopin and Rachmaninoff five years ago, 34-year old Moscow-born Zlata Chochieva has climbed strongly into the international spotlight. In 2016, Gramophone named her Chopin Études among the Top 50 Chopin recordings ever, moving it into the Top 10 a year later. Chochieva made her Moscow concert debut at age 8, and has previously won ten international piano competitions. Her teachers include Mikhail Pletnev, Pavel Nersessian and, more recently, Jacques Rouvier. She has performed in the Herkulessaal (Munich), Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Philharmonie de Paris, Vienna Konzerthaus, and made her debut in London’s Wigmore Hall in March 2019. She has also given concerto performances with the top Russian orchestras. This interview concentrates on her training with Pletnev, the evolution of her interests in Chopin and Rachmaninoff, and how she feels about moving into the spotlight these days. It was an outgrowth of her splendid Vancouver Chopin Society recital in November 2019, where she played Chopin’s Études Op.25 and Rachmaninoff’s Corelli Variations Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.