Sunday April 22
2:00 p.m.

Hailed as “a brilliant cellist” by the legendary Mstislav Rostropovich, Sergey Antonov went on to prove his mentor’s proclamation when he became one of the youngest cellists ever awarded the gold medal at the world’s premier musical Olympiad, the quadrennial International Tchaikovsky Competition. His international performance tours have taken him through Europe, and to Korea, the United Arab Emirates, and Canada. Closer to home, Antonov has been a favored guest artist with the Newport Music Festival, where he made his American debut, two years ago.

Born in Moscow to a musical family, Antonov began his cello studies at the age of five, initially under the tutelage of his mother, Maria Zhurayleva, and went on to graduate from Moscow Conservatory. In the spring of 2010, he received an Artist Diploma from Longy School of Music in Boston, where he worked with the Grammy-nominated cellist Terry King. It was during Antonov’s conservatory years that his abilities were recognized by Rostropovich, who had frequently taught master classes to gifted and highly advanced pupils. The famous cellist was so impressed with Antonov’s talent he invited the young student to perform with him during a tour of Europe and Russia. He was a recipient of the 2008 Golden Talent Award by the Russian Performing Arts Foundation, and garnered top soloist honors in the International Justus Friedrich Dotzauer Competition, the David Popper International Cello Competition, and the American String Teachers Association Competition. His chamber ensemble performances have also brought him honors from the Lyrica Chamber Music Series as their "Young Artist of the Year."

Ilya Kazantsev made his solo debut at Weill Recital Hall in 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 in Paris; the 2001 International Festival-Competition in Grodno, Belarus; and the 2005 Five Towns Competition in Long Island, New York. He was an award winner at the International Chopin Competition in Moscow, and both the 2007 and 2008 World Piano Competitions in Cincinnati. As a chamber musician, Kazantsev won the Trinity Church Concert Series Award in New York as well as the International Chamber Music Ensemble Competition in Boston. He has given solo recitals at the Moscow Conservatory, the St. Petersburg Philharmonia Recital Hall, and in New York at CAMI and Steinway Halls.

The celebrated composer and conductor Pierre Boulez praised Kazantsev for his thoughtful performance of the composer's Douze Notations in his master class. Kazantsev has presented numerous premieres of works by contemporary American, Russian, and Eastern European composers, some of which have been dedicated to him. He began his music studies at the age of seven. At the age of ten, he was accepted at the Central Music School at the Tchaikovsky State Conservatory in his native Moscow as a student of Professor Valeriy Pyasetsky. Subsequently, he came to New York to study at Mannes College, where he received his Bachelor of Music degree in 2005, his Master of Music degree in 2007, and is presently  a Professional Studies Diploma candidate, studying with Dr. Arkady Aronov.

www.sergeyantonov.com

www.ilyakazantsev.net

–Registration form   

Chamber Music at the Clark

Sergey Antonov, cello
Ilya Kazantsev, piano

Program:

Fryderyk Chopin
Introduction and Polonaise Brillante
in C Major, op. 3

Richard Strauss
Sonata for Cello and Piano in F Major, op. 6

Intermission

Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sonata for Cello and Piano in G Minor, op. 19

Reception

Reservation lottery submission deadline:
March 16, 2012
Admission: $25 per person.

A limited number of student seats are available at a discounted price of $10 per ticket for UCLA students only. Please see the reservation-by-lottery form for additional information.

Click here for the reservation-by-lottery form.

Chamber Music at the Clark is made possible by the generous support of the Ahmanson Foundation, Catherine Benkaim, the Edmund D. Edelman Foundation for Music and the Performing Arts, Mary and Donald Eversoll, Elizabeth and Gunter Herman, and Joyce Perry.

The series Chamber Music at the Clark is sponsored by the UCLA Center for 17th- & 18th-Century Studies and the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library.