Dmitry Paperno

Piano

Russian pianist Dmitry Paperno was a Laureate at the 1955 International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition. He recorded and performed widely under the Soviet regime before emigrating to Chicago in 1977, where he served as a professor at DePaul University.

Pianist, teacher, and writer, Dmitry Paperno (1929–2020) received his musical training at the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory, earning a Master’s Degree with Honors in 1951 and an Aspirant Diploma in 1955. A prize winner at the Fifth International Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 1955 and the First International Enescu Competition in Bucharest in 1958, Paperno went on to concertize widely throughout Russia and Eastern Europe as well as in England, Cuba, and Belgium (as soloist with the U.S.S.R. State Orchestra at EXPO in Brussels in 1958). He also made numerous recordings for Melodiya, the record label of the Soviet Union. In 1967, Mr. Paperno began teaching at the Gnessin Moscow State Institute. After emigrating to the United States in 1976, Paperno continued to perform extensively throughout the U.S. and Western Europe. A Professor at Chicago’s DePaul University starting in 1977, Paperno served on the jury panel for many international piano competitions. He also gave master classes at the Moscow Conservatory as well as in Belgium, Finland, Portugal, and the United States, including classes at Oberlin and the Manhattan School of Music. Mr. Paperno was the author of several articles on music and pianism and the books Notes of a Moscow Pianist (Amadeus Press) and Postscriptum.