Xenia Pestova Bennett

Described as “a powerhouse of contemporary keyboard repertoire” (Tempo), pianist and composer Xenia Pestova Bennett has earned an international reputation as a leading proponent of uncompromising music. Her work spans a wide range of sound worlds, styles and genres from classical to contemporary art music, free improvisation, experimental electronica and avant-pop.

 

Xenia's commitment to contemporary music inspired her to commission dozens of new works and collaborate closely with major innovators including Annea Lockwood, Karlheinz Essl and Gayle Young. Her nine studio albums to date include: widely acclaimed recordings of core piano duo works by John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen with Pascal Meyer for Naxos Records, Shadow Piano (Innova) for piano, toy piano and electronics, a “terrific album of dark, probing music” (Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader), the complete piano works by Gayle Young (Farpoint), hailed as "a triumph" (John Eyles, All About Jazz), and Gold.Berg.Werk (Ergodos), a reimagining of J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations by Karlheinz Essl, described as "a sci-fi journey in the direction of 1741” (Luke Clancy, RTE Lyric FM).

 


Xenia's own compositions are available on Diatribe Records and TakuRoku. Her full-length album Atomic Legacies features Ligeti Quartet and the Magnetic Resonator Piano. Highlighted in Bandcamp's "Best of Contemporary Classical" in 2020, the album was reviewed as "boldly conceived and brilliantly realised... a foretaste of things to come" (Julian Cowley, The Wire), "intoxicating, extraordinarily eerie and evocative” (Bernard Clarke, RTE LyricFM), "melancholy... heart-swells and proper feelings" (Jennifer Lucy Allan, The Quietus) and "a nuclear musical reaction that produces great, irradiated beauty" (Tom Service, BBC Radio 3). Xenia's subsequent Atonal Electronic Chamber Music for Cats takes an unexpected turn-around, using vintage synthesizers in an exploration of 1990's techno-art-pop nostalgia.