Ilya Kazantsev

Introduction: "Ilya Kazantsev plays with intelligence, artistic integrity and never a carelessly produced sound." - Rorianne Schrade, New York Concert, Review Magazine, Spring 2008 "He is the gem with extraordinary virtuosity and he showed us his exquisite ensemble ability and expression. It was impressive concert which felt me strong wind from Russia." - Hiromi Saito, Ongaku No Tomo Magazine, August 2010 Mr. Kazantsev dedicates a lot of his time to teaching. Starting at age of 13, he started building up his private studio in Moscow. After moving to New York, he has worked at Piano School of New York, served as a substitute teacher at Mannes College of Music, Greenwich School, and has been on the faculty at Bergen Academy of Music in New Jersey since its opening in 2004. During these years, he also served as an assistant of professor of Paris Conservatory Igor Lazko in his master class in Koper, Slovenia. Mr. Kazantsev has his students won international competitions. In January 2013, Mr. Kazantsev served as a judge at the National Olympic Competition in New York. Studio Location: Allston, MA Ilya Kazantsev, a fresh and exciting presence on the international music scene, has performed as recitalist and soloist with orchestras extensively throughout Russia and the United States, as well as appearing in Canada, Ukraine, Belarus, Slovenia, Italy, Germany and Japan. Ilya Kazantsev began his music studies at the Central Music School at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory as a student of Valeriy Pyasetsky (prolonging traditions of G.Neuhaus). Since 2002, Mr. Kazantsev has lived in New York, where he completed his studies at Mannes College of Music and Manhattan School of Music, getting bachelor's and master's degrees and professional studies diploma under the supervision of Dr. Arkady Aronov. Mr. Kazantsev made his sold-out solo debut at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in November 2007, as a winner of the Nadia Reisenberg Piano Award at Mannes College. Among his many other awards and honors, he received first prizes at the 1998 Nikolai Rubinstein International Competition (Paris), the 2001 International Festival-Competition (Grodno, Belarus), and the 2005 Five Towns Competition (Long Island, NY). He was also awarded prizes at the 2000 International Chopin Competition (Moscow, Russia), and the 2007 and 2008 World Piano Competition (Cincinnati). As a chamber musician, Mr. Kazantsev had a chance to perform with an outstanding Mannes College of Music faculty, such as Susan Jolles (harp), Erico Sato (violin), Yuri Vodovoz (violin), Todd Philllips (violin), and Liuh-Wen Ting (viola). He has also collaborated with Eric Jacobsen (cello), Wolfram Koesell (cello), and Hafez Nazeri (composer, citarist and singer). Upon completion of his master's degree at Mannes College of Music, he was given an Award for Excellence in Chamber Music Performance. Ilya has won the 2005 Trinity Church Concert Series Award (NY) with the Ikarus Chamber Players. Mr. Kazantsev was also a winner at the 2008 International Chamber Music Ensemble Competition in Boston with Canadian cellist Julia Maclaine as a Maclaine-Kazantsev Duo. Lately, Mr. Kazantsev started collaborating with the gold medal winner of the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, cellist Sergey Antonov, with whom he successfully toured Russia, Korea and Japan (2011 to 2012). He has also appeared as soloist with the Russian Youth Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonid Nikolaev at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, with Kharkov Youth Symphony and Kharkov Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of Yuriy Yanko in Kharkov, Ukraine. In New York, he has performed with the Doctors Symphony Orchestra and with the Mannes Community Orchestra, both conducted by Peter Bellino. One of the latest appearances was with the Tokyo City Philarmonic Orchestra, conducted by Hikaru Ebihara. As a solo recitalist, he has presented concerts in Russia at the Moscow Conservatory Great, Small, Rachmaninov Halls, the St. Petersburg Philarmonia Recital Hall, and in New York at CAMI and Steinway Halls, Barge Music, and Tenri Cultural Institute, to name but the few. As an active summer festival performer, Mr. Kazantsev presented both the opening and closing concerts at the 2006 International Academy of Music Festival in Castelnuovo di Garfagnana (Italy), and has also participated in the Virtuozi 2000. Festival in St. Petersburg, and the 1999 International Music Festival in Petrozavodsk (Russia). Mr. Kazantsev has performed in all of Mannes College of Music's annual concerts since La Belle Epoque, 2002 and Pianist as Composer, 2008. Mr. Kazantsev made his sold-out solo debut at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in November 2007, as a winner of the Nadia Reisenberg Piano Award at Mannes College. He has studied with leading artists, such as Lev Naumov, Elliso Virsaladze, Igor Lazko, Peter Eiher, Earl Wild, Jerome Rose, Richard Goode, Marcel Baudet, Edward Aldwell, Efim Bronfman, Piotr Paleczny, Phillipe Entremont, and Menahem Pressler. Mr. Kazantsev has taken a part in one of the last Menahem Pressler's DVD Masterclass Series. An enthusiastic advocate of contemporary music, Mr. Kazantsev has presented numerous premieres of works by contemporary American, Russian and Eastern European composers, some of which have been dedicated to him. Mr. Kazantsev was first prize winner at the Ridgewood Choral 2006 Composition Award in New Jersey in collaboration with Romanian composer Andrei Foca-Rodi. In 2004, he became vice director of NIAA, a new organization dedicated to promotion of contemporary art. Ilya's advanced studies have included coachings by such prominent figures as pianists and contemporary music specialists Jay Gotlieb, Mark Ponthus, and legendary composer and conductor Pierre Boulez, who praised Mr. Kazantsev for his "thoughtful performance" of composer's Douze Notations. As an organist, Mr. Kazantsev has worked at The Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Saint John the Theologian (2004-2008, Tenafly, NJ), and worked as a substitute organist at Our Lady Queen of Peace Church (Maywood, NJ), as well as many other churches in New Jersey and New York. For the last two seasons, Mr. Kazantsev was serving as an organist, musical director and choir conductor at the Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church in Long Island, New York.