Kasman Piano Concert: A Family Affair

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A clip of a piano recital featuring Yakov Kasman and his daughter, Aleksandra Kasman, in Orel, Russia. 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 3, 2015) — It will be a family affair when the University of Kentucky School of Music presents a concert of not one, but two award-winning pianists, Yakov Kasman and Aleksandra Kasman. Yakov Kasman, a silver medalist in the Tenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, and his student and daughter, 19-year-old Aleksandra “Sasha” Kasman, a national winner of the National Federation of Music Club’s Stillman-Kelley Award, will perform 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 5, at the Singletary Center for the Arts Recital Hall. The concert is free and open to the public.

Yakov Kasman and Aleksandra Kasman will play a variety of compositions by Sergei Rachmaninov, with pieces such as Suite No. 1 (Fantaisie-Tableaux), Suite No. 2 and the Symphonic Dances, considered one of the most difficult and impressive pieces of music in the classical repertoire.

Yakov’s American debut in the Van Cliburn Competition was the culmination of several competition triumphs and tours in Europe and the Middle East, including prizes at the 1991 Valentino Bucchi Competition in Rome, the 1991 London World Piano Competition, the 1992 Artur Rubinstein International Competition in Tel Aviv, and the 1995 International Prokofiev Competition at St. Petersburg.

Born in the city of Orel, near Moscow, Yakov began his piano studies at the age of 5. He graduated from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and served on the faculty at the Music College of the Moscow Conservatory. He is now a professor of piano and artist-in-residence at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He is actively involved in local, state and national music teachers’ organizations as a guest artist, teacher and adjudicator. His students are winners of regional, national and international competitions.

Sasha, a student of her father, is a sophomore at UAB and a University Honors Program student. Sasha is a silver medalist of the VII International Competition for Young Pianists presented in memory of Vladimir Horowitz in Kiev, Ukraine, and second place and Young Jury Award winner at the Arthur Fraser International Piano Competition in Columbia, South Carolina. She made her European solo debut recital at Salle Cortot in Paris, France, in 2009. She has also given solo recitals in U.S., Ukraine, Russia and Japan. Her recent engagements include solo recitals in the United States and duo-piano performances with her father in Russia and South Korea. Recently she won the Music Teachers National Association Young Artist piano competition in state of Alabama and advanced to the Southern division in January 2015.

The UK School of Music at the UK College of Fine Arts has garnered a national reputation for high-caliber education in opera, choral and instrumental music performance, as well as music education, composition, and theory and music history.

MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Hale, 859-257-8716; whitney.hale@uky.edu