Performer (bayan), teacher.
Iosif Purits was born in Moscow into a musical family and began studying the instrument at an early age, first in his parents’ class. His father, Iosif Grigoryevich Purits, is a well‑known bayan performer, teacher and methodologist, and his mother, Natalya Vasilyevna Purits, created a unique system of elementary bayan tuition.
At the age of eight he received his first laureate title at the International Klassika Nova Competition in Germany. From that time he embarked on an intensive artistic career. Annual victories at international competitions, participation in festivals and concerts in Russia and abroad have become a regular part of his life. He was the first child in Russia to win the International Competition in Klingenthal in the under‑twelve category. He has appeared many times at the Bayan and Bayanists International Festival in Moscow and for many years was a scholarship holder of the New Names and Vladimir Spivakov charitable foundations.
From 2004 to 2008 he studied at the Music College of the Moscow State Institute of Music named after A. G. Schnittke in the class of Professor Andrey Ivanovich Ledenev. He is a graduate of the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music, where he studied with Professor Friedrich Robertovich Lips, People’s Artist of Russia.
In 2013 he was awarded the top scholarship of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London, from which he graduated with distinction in 2017 in the class of Professor Owen Murray. In 2015 he became the first classical musician in the history of BBC Introducing. He has frequently appeared on BBC radio and television and at BBC‑organised festivals and concerts. He is also a recipient of the main Drake Calleja Trust scholarship for 2016–2017. In 2011 the national newspaper Muzykalnoye Obozreniye named him «Musician of the Year».
He has toured in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Germany, the Czech Republic, China, France, Spain, Israel, Denmark and other countries.
He has appeared in many leading concert halls, including:
- the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory;
- the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall (Moscow);
- Carnegie Hall (New York) and Wigmore Hall (London);
- the Konzerthaus (Vienna);
- the George Weston Recital Hall (Toronto);
- Nybrokajen Concert Hall (Stockholm);
- the National House of Vinohrady (Prague);
- the Concert Hall of the Central Conservatory of Music (Beijing);
- the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (Copenhagen);
- UNESCO Headquarters (Paris);
- the Hall of the State Capella (St Petersburg).
Iosif has won more than thirty international competitions, including:
- the International Accordion Competition in Castelfidardo, Italy (2009);
- the Trophee Mondial (Spokane, USA, 2012);
- the Arrasate Hiria International Accordion Competition (Arrasate, Spain, 2011);
- the International Accordion Competition in Klingenthal, Germany (2013);
- the First All‑Russian Music Competition (Moscow, 2013).
Between 2014 and 2016 he also became a laureate in competitions open to all classical instruments, including:
- the Karl Jenkins Classical Music Award (London, 2014);
- the Hattori Foundation Senior Awards (London, 2015);
- the Patrons’ Award (London, 2016).
Iosif Purits regularly gives masterclasses within the educational programmes of the New Names foundation, the Vladimir Spivakov International Charity Foundation, the Science, Art and Sport Foundation and the Magic of Sound Charitable Foundation.
He collaborates with the London Russian Music School and serves on the juries of numerous international and all‑Russian competitions.
Masterclasses and methodological workshops under his direction have taken place in Russian and international venues, including the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music, the Royal Academy of Music in London, the Special Music School of the Novosibirsk Conservatory, and institutions in Bosnia and China.
In 2020 the publishing house Muzyka issued the collection «From the Repertoire of Iosif Purits», which contains arrangements and original works by contemporary composers.
