October 24, 2024
7:30 p.m.
1900 Building, 1900 Shawnee Mission Parkway, Mission Woods, Kansas 66205

Experience an unforgettable evening with the students of Stanislav Ioudenitch. Revel in performances by award-winning pianists from Park ICM, as they deliver mesmerizing renditions of both classic and contemporary piano masterpieces.

Ali Mammadoff

Praised by The Examiner as a  “piano protege” and an “award winning talent” Ali Mammadoff has been captivating audiences around the globe with his virtuosity, depth, sensitivity and individuality. His exceptional pianistic abilities have taken him all over the world from Europe to the United States. He appeared numerous times both as a soloist and with the orchestra in the United States, England, Germany, France, Italy, Turkey, Ukraine and Azerbaijan. His most recent highlights include the performance of Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto in D minor and Prokofiev’s Concerto no 3 in C major with maestro Fuad Ibrahimov, which was received with a huge ovation. His breathtaking performances have won him prizes at international competitions both as a pianist and a composer.

Born in Baku, Azerbaijan the future musician began to show curiosity in piano at the age of five. Noticing his passion, at the age of 7 his mother took him to the Special Music School named after Bülbül in Baku, where he studied music fundamentals with Adelya Rahimova and composition with Pike Akhundova. Despite early successes with winning local competitions; orchestrating and performing his own works with orchestra, he wasn’t sure whether he is going to continue with music. However, Mr. Mammadoff decided to make a life-long professional commitment to music from the age of 16. As a huge fan of jazz music Mammadoff wanted to pursue his career as a jazz pianist first, but then he decided to leave it as a hobby. His exceptional talent and passion for music brought him to Manhattan School of Music in New York, where he studied under Phillip Kawin and immediately was awarded the Harold and Helene Schoenberg scholarship. He also received lessons from israeli pianist Alon Goldstein, Rena Shereshevskaya, William Grant Nabore, etc. At the age of 24, as a part of the “New Names”project Mammadoff performs for the first time with the symphonic orchestra one of the most difficult concertos in piano literature Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto in d minor. After this sensational performance he was immediately invited to perform this concerto at 13th Gabala International Music Festival with maestro Fuad Ibrahimov in the open air concert. In the interview, Mammadoff said that he couldn’t have done it without a guidance of his mentor Stanislav Ioudenitch, because of whom he left everything in New York city to move to Kansas City.

In October 2023 Mammadoff participated in the “World Concerto Tour” project by Stanislav Ioudenitch celebrating Sergei Rachmaninoff’s 150th anniversary featuring composer’s complete piano concerti. In March 2024, as a part of “New Names” project Mr. Mammadoff was invited again to perform Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto with maestro Fuad Ibrahimov at Azerbaijani State Philharmonic Hall which was received with huge success. On April 2024, he was invited to perform at David Dubal’s Piano Evenings series. In the summer 2024, Mr.Mammadoff recorded a complete set of 24 Preludes and Fugues from the second book of Well Tempered Clavier by J.S. Bach, which will be released in January 2025.

Currently Mr. Mammadoff studies at International Center for Music at Park University under 2001 Van Cliburn Gold medalist Stanislav Ioudenitch.

Yangrui Cai

Born in November of 2000, Chinese Pianist Yangrui Cai began his piano study at age 4. Between the ages of 8 and 12, he studied with Jay Sun and continued under Dr. Vivian Li of the Xinghai Conservatory of Music since age 12 until college. In 2016, Yangrui was admitted to the Xinghai Conservatory Middle School with a first-place ranking in the national audition. He has since then taken top prizes in all the major national competitions in China. In the past few years, Yangrui has won prizes at major international competitions such as the 7th Sendai International Music Competition in Japan, the 9th Bösendorfer &Yamaha USASU Competition for Young Artists in USA and the most recent Sydney International Piano Competition in 2021. He has also distinguished      himself at the Cliburn International Piano Competition 2022 with an impressive performance. Recently,Yangrui was awarded 4th prize in The Ljubljana Festival International Piano Competition 2023 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. He was also awarded 1st Prize in 2023 Japan Piano Open international piano competition.

Since a young age, Yangrui has given solo recitals in China, Japan, Germany, Denmark, Italy, France, Canada and the United States; appeared as soloist with Hong Kong Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra in China, Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra in Japan, TIMM Ensemble in Italy, RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra in Slovenia, Azerbaijan State Philharmonic Orchestra and Armenian State Symphony Orchestra. Yangrui was a full scholarship recipient of numerous influential music festivals such as  Morningside Music Bridge and Tanglewood Music Festival. He has performed in masterclasses with Dmitri Bashkirov, Antonio Pompa-Baldi , Stanislav Ioudenitch, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Lev Natochenny, Michel Dalberto, Krzysztof Jablonski, Peter Donohoe, Chengzong Yin, Thai Son Dang, Horacio Gutirrez, Robert Spano and Yefim Bronfman .

Upon his graduation with distinction at the Middle School of Xinghai Conservatory in July 2019, Yangrui was admitted to several prestigious conservatories in the USA with full scholarships. He recently received his Bachelor of Music degree at Oberlin Conservatory, and continuing to pursue his Master of Music at Park University ICM, studying under the tutelage of world-renowned pianist, Professor Stanislav Ioudenitch.

Tatiana Dorokhova

Tatiana Dorokhova was born in 1991 in Volgograd in a family of musicians. She started playing the piano at the age of six and went on to graduate from the Children’s Music School No. 14 in Volgograd (class of Mrs. Anna Cherfas), the Central Music School in 2009, and the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory (class of Prof. Alexander Mndoyants) in 2016. She has also participated in master classes of outstanding musicians, including Dmitry Bashkirov, Paul Badura-Skoda, Dina Yoffe, Richard Goode, Leon Fleischer and others.

Tatiana is a laureate of many International music competitions, including: the International Piano Competition of the City of Jaen (Spain, 2011, 2^nd Prize and prize for the best performance of a compulsory work); the Johann Nepomuk Hummel International Piano Competition (Bratislava, Slovakia, 2017, 3^rd Prize); the 28th New Orleans International Piano Competition (USA, 2022, 2^nd Prize); the Gurwitz International Piano Competition (USA, 2024, 2^nd Prize and the Audience Favorite Award), the Santa Cecilia International Piano Competition (Porto, Portugal, 2024, 3^rd Prize).

Tatiana took part in the recording of the Anthology of Russian and Soviet Piano Music CD series released by the “Melodiya” record company.

Currently Tatiana is a student of  Professor Stanislav Ioudenitch at Park University in Parkville, Missouri.

Ilya Shmukler

“Shmukler is a volcano”; “the name of Ilya Shmukler should be remembered” – that is how the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung described this pianist after his triumph at the world-renowned Concours Géza Anda 2024 in Zurich, Switzerland, where he won four special awards in addition to the First Prize.

When he was 3 years old, Moscow native Ilya Shmukler’s mother found him jumping on the bed and beautifully singing Robertino Loreti’s “Jamaica”. Thus recognizing his talent, she immediately made him take his first music lessons. It was important to Ilya’s non-musician parents, however, that he be raised as a well-rounded person, so his early years were also spent with school, table tennis, and ballroom dancing. But at 10, he says, his life changed after applying for and winning his first music competition and attending the subsequent international summer academy: “There I discovered a true musical life, and I fell in love with it, inspiring me to commit my life to music.”

He performed his first recital at age 12, and made his orchestral debut at 14. Since then, he made solo appearances in Europe and North America, and performed with such artists as Mikhail Pletnev, Paavo Järvi, Marin Alsop, Nicholas McGegan, Junichi Hirokami, Anne-Marie McDermott, Anton Nel and David Radzynski. Ilya Shmukler’s collaborations include the Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich, Musikkollegium Winterthur, the Mariinsky, Fort Worth Symphony, Sendai Philharmonic, Kansas City Chamber, Bayer-Symphoniker, and New Music Orchestras.

Besides the Concours Géza Anda, Ilya is a laureate of many international piano contests, taking top prizes at the Wideman (Shreveport), Lewisville Lake Symphony, Artist Presentation Society (St. Louis), Shigeru Kawai (Tokyo) Competitions. To have become a finalist of the 2022 Cliburn Competition, where he also received the award for the “Best Performance of a Mozart Concerto”, is a milestone in his career. As a winner of the Carnegie Weill Recital Hall Debut Audition he made his New York debut at the venerated venue on December 13, 2022.

An alumnus of the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory under the guidance of Professors Elena Kuznetsova and Sergey Kuznetsov, Ilya continues his studies at Park University (USA) with Professor Stanislav Ioudenitch, so he combines diverse approaches in piano playing. Ilya’s dear teacher Stanislav Ioudenitch characterized him as “an exceptionally talented pianist with a unique blend of imagination and individuality.”