The recipient of the Robert Levin Prize 2022, Nikita Khnykin, is a young Norwegian pianist who is gaining increasing recognition. He was nominated for both the Norwegian Soloist Prize and Equinor's classical music scholarship in 2023, and has performed as a soloist with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in 2019 and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra in 2018 and 2020, in live television broadcasts. In the fall of 2023, he made his debut with the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, and recent highlights include an invitation from Leif Ove Andsnes to play at the Rosendal Chamber Music Festival in the summer of 2024.
One of Nikita's proudest moments was in May 2024, when he organized and assembled an orchestra and choir consisting of musicians from Sweden and Norway, and conducted Beethoven's Choral Fantasy and Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21, “Elvira Madigan,” from the piano.
Nikita was born in Oslo in 2003 to Russian parents and is currently studying with Julia Mustonen at Musikhögskolan Ingesund in Sweden. He has also been part of Prof. Jiri Hlinka's Piano Academy in Bergen since 2017, where he collaborated with his mentors Leif Ove Andsnes, Håvard Gimse, and Christian Ihle Hadland, and participated in masterclasses with several prominent pianists, including Bertrand Chamayou, Kirill Gerstein, and Lilya Zilberstein.
Nikita has received several awards for his playing, including several first prizes in the Youth Music Championship in various age groups, and in 2020 he won all the prizes available in the same competition, including the Audience Prize, the EMCY Prize for outstanding performance, and the title “Talent of the Year.”
Ever since Nikita began his musical training at the Barratt-Due Music Institute, chamber music with renowned musicians and friends has been an important part of his musical career. This has resulted in performances at the Oslo Chamber Music Festival and the Bergen International Festival, both in 2016, and in 2023 at the Lofoten International Chamber Music Festival.
Nikita's musical interests also include conducting, and in 2020 he participated as a mentor in the program “Maestro” on NRK1. He has also composed several works, and his piece “Poeme” for symphony orchestra was performed by the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra in 2021, conducted by Christian Eggen.
(photo: Sveinung Bjorå)
