Anastasia Calmus

Biography

Origins and Artistic Identity

Born in Ukraine into a family of artists, Anastasia Calmus revealed an exceptional musical talent from an early age. She began playing the piano at the age of five and quickly distinguished herself in several international competitions. Invited to perform as a soloist with various symphony orchestras, she soon stood out as a promising young musician.

From an early age, surrounded by actors and professionals from the worlds of theatre and cinema, she developed a particular sensitivity to the stage and to the performing arts. This early immersion would later find its expression, in adulthood, in the creation of solo recitals with a strong dramaturgical dimension. Built around an interaction with the audience and unified by a continuous narrative from the first piece to the last, her programmes shape an original and immediately recognisable approach to the classical concert within the landscape of contemporary performance.

Studies and Early Career

Anastasia Calmus pursued her studies in Moscow at the Gnessin Musical College, in the class of Professor Maxim Zheleznov, before entering the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory, where she studied with Pavel Nersessian and graduated with the highest honours.

A curious and committed artist, she developed alongside her formal studies a project combining theatre and music with actor Dmitry Bozin, which was successfully presented in Russia and Estonia. She then embarked on an international career as a soloist and chamber musician, pursuing numerous artistic collaborations, notably in duo with American double bassist Catalin Rotaru, with whom she performed on many stages throughout the United States, Latin America, Europe and Asia.

She further enriched her artistic path by completing a Master’s degree at the F.A. Bonporti Conservatory in Trento, Italy, in the class of Massimiliano Mainolfi.

The French Years

Since settling in France in 2019, Anastasia Calmus has developed a concert career marked by a singular artistic versatility.

As a chamber musician, she regularly collaborates with cellist Julie Sevilla-Fraysse and also performs in duo with accordionist Élodie Soulard. Drawn to hybrid artistic forms, she has also created a musical production for young audiences with actor Boris de Mourzitch, in which she appears both as pianist and actress.

All these experiences at the intersection of music and theatre reflect a coherent artistic approach, resolutely centred on storytelling and on renewing the form of the concert.

A Return to Solo Piano:

Métropoles en Scènes

This visceral need for storytelling finds its fullest expression in her solo projects, which she conceives as complete artistic experiences, taking on the roles of performer, curator and guide.

Her current solo programme, Métropoles en Scènes, is conceived as a cinematic and theatrical journey, inviting the audience to experience the intensity of an urban day, from the awakening of the city in the morning to the heart of the night.

The musical journey begins with the awakening of the city, carried by the music of Philip Glass, before turning inward through the poignant works of Polina Nazaykinskaya, bringing together concert grand piano and toy piano.

The journey then leads the listener through the streets of Paris with the highly visual works of Francis Poulenc (Presto in B-flat major, Mélancolie and the Trois mouvements perpétuels). The crossing continues across the Atlantic, from the energy of New York in George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue to the jazz-infused vitality of an Étude by Nikolai Kapustin, before finally fading into the intimacy of a bedroom with Jacob Collier’s In My Room.

Thinking of music as a vehicle for images and shared emotions lies at the heart of her artistic approach. On stage, Anastasia Calmus accompanies the audience with spoken cues, making each work accessible and connecting it to the lived experience of each listener.