Alexey Botvinov was born in all-musicians family in Odessa, where he studied with Prof. Mogilewskaja and later at the Conservatory of Odessa with Prof. Kardaschew. 1987-89 he was a student at the Moscow Conservatory with famous Prof. Gornostayeva. His last mentor was legendary pianist Alexis Weissenberg. Botvinov is a prize-winner of such important piano competitions as the 1st Rachmaninoff-Competition in Moscow, the 8th International Bach-Competition in Leipzig and the 1st Clara-Schumann-Competition in Düsseldorf. In 1993 he played Tchaikovsky's First piano concerto for the opening of the concert season at the Tonhalle Zürich with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Moscow under the baton of Vladimir Fedoseyev, which was highly acclaimed by the press and by the audience.
During the years 1994-96 Alexey Botvinov lived in Düsseldorf (Germany), where he was asked to perform Bach's "Goldberg-Variations" and Schumann's "Kinderszenen" with the ballet productions by the famous choreographer Heinz Spoerli. Meanwhile artistic cooperation with Heinz Spoerli continued in Zurich from 1996 to 2012 with over 20 different ballet productions at music by Bach, Mozart, Schumann, Brahms, Chopin, Schnittke, Stravinsky etc. with great acclaim. Pianist was on many tours with the Zurich Balett in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France, Spain, Great Britain, Russia, Japan, Canada, South Africa, China etc. with huge success.
The recitals he played in such festivals as Chopin Festival in Poland or Züricher Festspiele were given standing ovations and enthusiastic acclaims by the press. In summer 2003 Alexey Botvinov was nominated Artist in Residence at the Murten Classics Festival (Switzerland) with 8 different concerts. In 2005 he played his debut recital at the Wigmore Hall London and in 2006 – at the Berlin Philharmony.
During 2006 he was on long tours in China with Zurich Chamber Orchestra and with Koenigliche Philharmonie Flandern in Belgium and Germany. Every concert of Asian tour in October 2007 (Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur,Jakarta, Taiwan) was finishing with standing ovation.
In the years 2009-2010 Botvinov was Artistic Director of Odessa National Opera Theater. During that time he initiated two very successful new productions – opera “Turandot” - director C.Von Goetz (Germany); and ballett “Nureyev forever” with solo piano by A.Botvinov. They were very first modern-concept productions for Opera Theaters in Ukraine at all.
In 2011 Patriarch of All Ukraine Vladimir presented to Alexey Botvinov The Orden of Saint Dimitry for “his great achievements for Culture in Ukraine”.
Recently Botvinov explores new ways of presenting classical music. Among his new innovative projects there are “Music of Love” and “4 Elements”, where music and visual effects have converted a traditional concert into an amazing multimedia mystery.
Project was presented 2009 in Moscow, and then in Kiev ,Odessa and other cities with over 20.000 spectators . All the major outlets were raving about magnificence of “Visual Reality of Music”.
In 2010 Botvinov started unique “Goldberg Reloaded” –project, where Bach masterpiece combines with oriental rhythms by world star-percussionist Burhan Ocal. Concerts in Paris, Zurich, Istanbul, Moscow, Basel, Abu-Dhabi and at Montreux Jazz-Festival became sensational success by audience and specialists.
A year after he created another highly innovative project – synthesis of Drama Theater and classical concert. Basing on new novel of a leading modern Russian writer M. Shishkin “The Light and the Dark”, Botvinov made his debut as a theater director in art-project, where his solo performance harmonizes on stage with two drama actors. Highly successful in Russia and Ukraine, project coming soon at Europe stages. Premiere of German-speaking version became a great success in Zurich in December 2012.