Born in 1979 in a family of musicians, Hanna began her piano-education at the age of six, taking her first piano-lessons from her mother. A year later she was admitted to a special music school for gifted children, and at the age of sixteen she entered the Belarus Music Academy in her birthplace (Minsk, Belarus). Her first public appearance was at the age of nine, playing Haydn Concerto with the University of Culture Orchestra, and at the early age of eleven Hanna won the first prize at the International Casale Monferrato Piano Competition in Italy, followed two years later with two prizes at the International Bach Competition in Leipzig. Since then, she has won many prizes at international competitions in Europe and the US, had a busy schedule with solo-recitals and chamber music, and appeared as a soloist with orchestra's in Russia and European countries. Meanwhile, she was awarded important grants, such as from Unesco/New Names (Moscow), the Spivakov Foundation (Moscow), the Yuri Egorov Foundation (Amsterdam) and the Yamaha Music Foundation Europe.
Hanna Shybayeva came to The Netherlands in 1999 to continue her studies with Naum Grubert at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. One year later, her first CD was released and broadcast in its entirety on Radio-4, the Dutch classical music channel, The following year (2001) she won both the first- and superprize at the YPF National Piano Competition in Amsterdam, and soon afterwards Philips-Universal released her new solo-album, which was highly regarded in the Dutch national press.
She performed several times at the annual Prinsengracht Festival in Amsterdam, and the many recitals which she gave in The Netherlands and abroad include those at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Vredenburg Concert Hall in Utrecht, the Concertgebouw in Nijmegen and the International Music Fair in Frankfurt.
In 2004 she was awarded a grant by the prestigeous Prince Bernhard Cultural Foundation in The Netherlands, and in 2005 she obtained her Master of Music degree at the Royal Conservatory with the highest distinction.
In between, she participated in masterclasses with such eminent mentors as Dimitri Baskirov, John O'Connor, Eugen Indjiç, Igor Roma, Murray Perahia and Emanuel Ax, and had the privilege of working with conductors such as Joachim Simon, Angel Shurev, Moshe Atzmon, Lygia O'Riordan, Jacob Traub, Hans Leenders, and most recently with Neeme Järvi with whom she gave several performances of Prokofief's Pianoconcerto nr.3.
Her playing is praised by press and public alike for its deep musical interpretations, great sense of form and rich color palette.
Hanna lives in The Hague, The Netherlands.
