The first product of this new collaboration — Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24 and Schumann's Piano Concerto, recorded live with the London Symphony Orchestra and conductor Colin Davis in September 2006 — will be released this spring. Later this year will come a set of the complete Beethoven piano concertos (again with Davis and the LSO); projects for 2008 will be announced later.

Born in 1971 in Moscow, Kissin first achieved renown with a recording of the Chopin Piano Concertos he made with the Moscow State Philharmonic at age 12. By age 16, he was the piano soloist with Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic at their 1988 New Year's Day concert; later that year he made his London Symphony debut under Valery Gergiev. He made his North American debut with Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic a month before his 19th birthday, and a few weeks later he opened Carnegie Hall's centennial season with a solo recital. In 1997 he gave the first solo piano recital ever programmed at the BBC Proms.

Kissin already has more than 40 recordings to his credit, most on the RCA Red Seal label (now a division of Sony BMG Classics). His most recent new release was a recital of Scriabin, Medtner and Stravinsky issued in September of 2005; it won a Grammy the following year.