Denis Leonidovich Matsuev (Russian: Дени́с Леони́дович Мацу́ев, born June 11, 1975) is a Russian classical pianist.
Born in Irkutsk, Soviet Union, Matsuev is the only child of two musicians, as his mother is a piano teacher and his father is a pianist and composer. He demonstrated a musical ear at age 3, when he reproduced on the piano at home a melody that he heard on television. His father subsequently became his first piano teacher. Until age 15, Matsuev studied music in Irkutsk. In 1990, he won a prize at the "New Names Charitable Foundation" competition in Irkutsk and received a stipend, $1,000 a month, from the foundation to study music in Moscow. With other young gifted musicians from Russia discovered by the foundation, Matsuev went on tour in Europe and the United States.
In 1991, Matsuev moved with his parents to Moscow to continue his musical education. He studied at the Central Music School at the Moscow Conservatory. In 1994, he took part at his first international piano competition in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he was awarded the Grand Prix. In the same year, he entered the Moscow Conservatory as a student of Aleksey Nasedkin. After 1997, he studied under Sergei Dorensky. Matsuev won the 11th International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1998 at age 23.