Monday, May 6
7:00 p.m.
Graham Tyler Memorial Chapel

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;” she immediately recognized his musical talent and started him in lessons. It was important to his non-musician parents 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. He has since made solo appearances in Europe and North America, and has performed with the Mariinsky Theatre, Fort Worth Symphony, Kansas City Chamber, Sendai Philharmonic, Bayer Symphoniker, Tambov Symphonic, and New Music Orchestras, among others.

Ilya is a laureate of many international piano competitions, taking top prizes at the Wideman (Shreveport), Lewisville Lake Symphony, Artist Presentation Society (St. Louis), Shigeru Kawai (Tokyo), Sсriabin–Rachmaninov (Bulgaria), and Rachmaninov (St. Petersburg) Competitions. He was a quarterfinalist in the 2017 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, and achieved the milestone of his career as a Finalist in the 2022 Cliburn Competition. In addition, he received the award for the “Best Performance of a Mozart Concerto” in the 2022 Cliburn Competition. In 2021, he won the Carnegie Weill Recital Hall Debut Audition and made his New York debut at the venerated venue on December 13, 2022.

He completed his master’s degree with honors at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory in 2021, under the guidance of Elena Kuznetsova and Sergey Kuznetsov. Presently, he studies with Stanislav Ioudenitch at the International Center for Music at Park University in Parkville, Missouri.

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 at the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory (class of Prof. Alexander Mndoyants) 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, Leon Fleischer and others.

Tatiana’s performances always present an extraordinary involvement in musical material, depth, and thoughtfulness, and each one reveals new facets of the music. Tatiana performs with virtuosity, a sensitive touch, a sense of style and form, and a clear understanding of the cultural context. She deftly performs music encompassing all eras – from the Baroque to the present. Even during her formative years, despite her young age, her performances were repeatedly noted by distinguished musicians to be full of maturity and invariably left a deep mark in the hearts of listeners.

Tatiana is a laureate of many international music competitions, including: the International Competition of Young Pianists named after P.A. Serebryakov (Volgograd, Russia, 2004, 1st  prize); the International Competition of Young Pianists named after V.V. Krainev (Kharkiv, Ukraine, 2008, 1st Prize and special Prize for the best performance of works by German composers); the International Piano Competition of the City of Jaen (Spain, 2011, 2nd  Prize and prize for the best performance of a compulsory work); the Silvio Bengalli International Piano Competition (Val Tidone, Italy, 2014, 2nd prize); the Johann Nepomuk Hummel International Piano Competition (Bratislava, Slovakia, 2017, 3rd Prize); the Berlin International Music Competition (2018, Grand Prix); The 28th New Orleans International Piano Competition (USA, 2022, 2nd Prize).

Tatiana took part in the recording of the Anthology of Russian and Soviet Piano Music CD series released by the “Melodiya” record company. In addition to her solo activity, she is greatly interested in chamber music. She has collaborated with violinists, performed works for two pianos and a trio, presented all frequently played works for cello and piano, and played piano quintets. She has performed in the halls of the Moscow Conservatory, the St. Petersburg, Moscow and Berlin Philharmonic, and the Cortot Hall in Paris.

Tatiana Dorokhova successfully combines performing and teaching activities. In 2017-2022 she was an Assistant Professor at the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory, working with Professor Alexander Mndoyants. Currently Tatiana is a student of  Professor Stanislav Ioudenitch at Park University in Parkville, Missouri.