© Ira Polyarnaya
Drawing their strength from a love of sharing, taking risks and exploring, Ludmila Berlinskaya and Arthur Ancelle are two inseparable pianists, a couple who are inseparable both on and off stage.
Both come from families of famous performers, and both are accomplished soloists, Ludmila Berlinskaya and Arthur Ancelle form a duo characterised by a constant rapport. Through their on-stage energy, their original programmes, innovative concert formats and interaction with the audience, they aim to help give the piano duo a place on a par with other chamber music ensembles.
They’ve been playing together since 2011, the duo has built up a rich repertoire comprising the greatest «hits» for two pianos and four hands, as well as rare works, exploring both original compositions and transcriptions enriched by Arthur Ancelle’s many arrangements: Francesca da Rimini (Jurgenson), Romeo & Juliet (The Song of the World), After reading Dante, etc.
Every season, they host the the largest auditoriums – the Philharmonie de Paris, the Radio France Auditorium, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Salle Gaveau, the Salle Cortot, the Moscow and St Petersburg Philharmonic Halls, the Zaryadye Concert Hall, the Mariinsky Theatre, the Megaron in Athens – and guests from prestigious festivals, such as the Gstaad Music Festival, the December Nights Festival in Moscow, the Tokyo Spring Festival, Rota das Artes in Lisbon, Klavier Raritäten in Husum, the Lille Piano Festival, the Lisztomanias, the Solistes à Bagatelle and the Pianofolies in Le Touquet.
They also collaborate with renowned orchestras, such as the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Freiburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Ulsan Philharmonic Orchestra, the Ural Philharmonic Orchestra, the Lille National Orchestra, the Île-de-France National Orchestra, the Picardy Orchestra and the Victor Hugo Franche-Comté Orchestra, conducted by conductors from across the generations: Nikolai Alexeev, Arie Van Beek, Vladimir Ponkin, Dmitri Liss, Lin Tao, Jean-François Verdier, Vahan Mardirossian, Jader Bignamini, Georg Köhler, Youri Medianik, Laurent Comte, Lucie Leguay, Rebecca Tong…
Building on a a flurry of album releases As a duo, soloists and chamber musicians, Ludmila Berlinskaya and Arthur Ancelle have already performed more than ten albums all of which have been praised and recognised by the international press (Editor’s Choice from Gramophone, Clash of Classica, ffff from Télérama, Album of the Year at the World and Liberation, Maestro Pianist, Musiq3’s Musical Choice, ResMusica’s Clé d’Or, etc.). Their concerts are recorded and broadcast by France Musique, Radio Classique, TCE Live, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, Radio Orpheus, NPO Radio 4 and the RTS.
Very involved in the transmission Through their art, Ludmila Berlinskaya and Arthur Ancelle lead a class entirely dedicated to piano duos at the École normale de musique de Paris and are the artistic directors of the Piano-Piano project, which comprises the Rungis Piano-Piano Festival, the Piano-Piano Academy and the open Piano-Piano Database, entirely dedicated to the world of two pianos and a four-hand piece.
The duo are under contract with Alpha Classics since April 2022. Their first album for the label, Secret passage, was published in February 2024. The American Dream is published on 26 September 2025.
Eva Zavaro’s recording of the Sonata for violin and piano by Oskar C. Posa, published in September 2025, was a huge international critical success: Choc de Classica, 4T of Télérama, Record of the Year for Alex Ross (The New Yorker), Selection Le Monde, Golden Key of the Year ResMusica, Album of the Month Scherzo, Limelight Editor’s Choice.
