Russian pianist Ilya Yakushev will perform at Victor Valley College in Victorville on Sunday.
Yakushev, who is celebrated as the unrivaled master of the music of Sergei Prokofiev, in particular his acclaimed interpretations of Prokofiev’s Piano Sonatas, numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 & 7, will perform at 2:30 p.m. October 18 at the Victor Valley College Performing Arts Center located east of the Jacaranda campus entrance at 18422 Bear Valley Road in Victorville.
The winner of the 2005 World Piano Competition, Yakushev studied with legendary pianist Vladimir Feltsman.
He has performed at major venues across three continents, including Carnegie Hall, Davies Symphony Hall, the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, Victoria Hall, Flagler Museum and La Jolla Athenaeum, at times in conjunction with the San Francisco Symphony, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Boston Pops, Rochester Philharmonic, Utah Symphony, Kirov Orchestra, Syracuse Symphon, Arkansas Symphony, Cheyenne Symphony, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Panama City Symphony, Glacier Symphony, Youngstown Symphony and the San Luis Obispo Symphony.
Yakushev has recently performed Joseph Haydn’s Sonata in D major; Ludwig van Beethoven’s Sonata in F minor, Opus 57 Appassionata; George Gershwin’s Three Preludes: Allegro ben ritmato e deciso, Andante con moto e poco rubato, Agitato; Alexander Scriabin’s Prelude for the Left Hand Alone in C-sharp minor, Opus 9 Number 1 and Nocturne for the Left Hand Alone in D-flat major, Opus 9 number 2; Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Elegie in E-flat minor, Opus 3, Number 1 and Prelude in C-sharp minor, Opus 3, Number 2 and Franz Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz Number 1.
Yakushev’s performance is being presented by Live On Stage, Inc. and the Victor Valley Community Concert Association.
Those with a subscription to the Victor Valley Community Concert Association’s current season can attend the concert at no further charge.  Single tickets are available for $35 per adult, and $5 for children age 17 and under.
Yakushev’s performance is to come nearly 104 years and three months after Ignacy Jan Paderewski, the great pianist who three years previously had briefly served as the premier of Poland, played an impromptu concert at the Hesperia Hotel on July 19, 2022, after the Santa Fe train he was taking from Los Angeles to his almond ranch in Paso Robles was sidelined by severe landslides in the Cajon Pass resulting from a heavy summer rain resulted in the tracks into and out of the High Desert being closed until they could be cleared.
-Mark Gutglueck