Audiences throughout the world revere Ilya Itin’s unique artistry. Playing to sold out houses in Asia and the US, he is known for his extraordinary range, quality of sound and powerful command of the piano. His recitals have been singled out as a “top ten musical moment of the year” by the Philadelphia Inquirer, and he was hailed by the New York Times as: “…a brilliantly insightful pianist who offered a superb recital “.
Since capturing the Gold Medal, BBC Audience Award, and Contemporary Music Prize at the 1996 Leeds International Piano Competition, Ilya Itin has performed throughout the world, bringing his powerful musical imagination and mastery to wide wide-ranging repertoire. “I’d go to hear him play the phonebook,” remarked BBC TV critic Ian Burnside. Ilya Itin has performed with many of the world’s great conductors, including Sir Simon Rattle, Neemi Jarvi, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Yakov Kreizberg, Vassily Sinaisky, Valery Polyansky, and Mikhail Pletnev, with orchestras, including the Cleveland Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Phil- harmonic, the Tokyo Symphony, the National Symphony, the London Philharmonic, the China National Symphony, the Symphony Orchestra of India; the Mexico City Philharmonic; and the Rochester Philharmonic.
Mr. Itin is a sought-after teacher giving master classes throughout Asia and the United States. His students have garnered top prizes in international competitions, and awards at the most competitive conservatories in the US and Asia.
Born in Yekaterinburg, Russia, his piano studies began at the Sverdlovsk School for the Gifted with Natalia Litvinova. He went on to graduate from the Moscow Conservatory with the highest honors, working with legend- ary teacher Lev Naumov. Mr. Itin won his first major piano competition as a student at the Conservatory, taking second place in the 1990 Russian National Rachmaninov Competition. Soon after, he won top honors in the William Kapell Competition, followed by First Prize, and the Special Chopin Prize at the Casadesus Competition (Cleveland Competition), and the Best Performance of a Work of Mozart, Best Prokofiev Performance, and Third Prize at the Gina Bachauer Competition.
Ilya Itin is on the piano faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music. He has been a Yamaha artist since 2020.