Artist Biography: Ilya Yakushev
Ilya Yakushev was born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), where he received his first award at age twelve as a prizewinner of the Young Artists Concerto Competition. He studied at the Saint Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov College of Music and continued at the Mannes College of Music, where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees as a student of Arkady Aranov. Mr. Yakushev studied with Vladimir Feltsman in the Professional Studies Program at Mannes, and he has also performed in master classes presented by Richard Goode, Ruth Laredo, Jerome Rose, Earl Wild, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet. He made his debut under San Francisco Symphony auspices at the Prokofiev Festival in June 2007.
As winner of the 2004 Mannes College Concerto Competition, he made his Alice Tully Hall debut playing Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Mannes Orchestra and conductor Paul Nadler. In 2005, Mr. Yakushev won the gold medal at the World Piano Competition in Cincinnati, and he subsequently gave a recital at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. Mr. Yakushev has given numerous concerts at Mannes, including performances of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3, Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No. 2, Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G, and Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in a concert led by Vladimir Feltsman. Mr. Yakushev also received the 2007 Gawon International Music Society’s Award in Seoul, Korea.
Ilya Yakushev has appeared at the Sibelius Academy of Music in Finland, the Puccini Theater in Merano, Italy, Glinka Philharmonic Hall in Saint Petersburg, and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. In past seasons, he toured the Far East with concerts in Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia, and gave recitals at venues such as the Bechstein Center (Berlin), Musikverein (Vienna), and Rubinstein Academy (Dusseldorf). In addition to his performing career, Mr. Yakushev has since 2002 served as Executive Director of the International Keyboard Institute and Festival at Mannes, founded and directed by Jerome Rose.