(NEW LEBANON, N.Y.) – Pianist Ilya Poletaev performs works by Bach, Chopin, Debussy, Liszt, and Enescu on Saturday, August 13 at 8 pm in the Tannery Pond Concert Series in the Shaker Tannery on the grounds of the Darrow School in New Lebanon, N.Y. Poletaev recently captured First Prize at the prestigious XVII International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in Leipzig and, as the winner, will appear in recital at the Leipzig Gewandhaus.

Poletaev leads a multifaceted career as both a classically trained pianist and as a performer on early keyboards (harpsichord). As a solo pianist, he has appeared with the Toronto and Hartford symphony orchestras as well as with Romania’s Filarmonica “Mihail Jora” di Bacau and Orchestra J-Futura of Trento, Italy.

Poletaev was the First Prize winner of the XX Concorso Sala Gallo Piano Competition in Monza, Italy, where he also received the Audience Prize, the Bach Prize, and the Orchestra Prize. Recently, Poletaev gave an acclaimed performance at the Caramoor Festival with renowned mezzo-soprano Susan Graham and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto as well as a doctorate and Master’s degree from Yale, where he served on the faculty as a lecturer in Early Music. He was recently appointed Assistant Professor of Piano at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University in Montréal. Mr. Poletaev’s recording of the complete works of George Enescu for violin and piano, with violinist Axel Strauss, will soon be released on the Naxos label.

As a harpsichordist, Poletaev was a top prizewinner at the 2007 Southeastern Historical Keyboard Society harpsichord competition, and has been heard in such venues as Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, New York City’s Pierpont Morgan Library, the Aston Magna Early Music Festival, and the Amherst Early Music Festival. As a chamber musician, he has performed alongside such distinguished artists as Robert Mann, Gary Hoffmann, Boris Berman, Susan Narucki, and Miah Persson. He has also appeared at the Moab, Caramoor, Sarasota, Norfolk, Yellow Barn, Banff, Oxford and Stratford Summer Music Festivals.

Poletaev began studying in Moscow at the age of six and continued his studies in Israel until he moved to Canada at the age of 14. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto, where he studied with pianist Marietta Orlov and harpsichordist Colin Tilney. He holds both a Master’s degree and a Doctorate from Yale, where he studied with Boris Berman. Between 2005 and 2010 he also served on the faculties of the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, the Yale Department of Music and the Yale School of Music as a lecturer in early music.

Poletaev’s Tannery Pond program is expected to include the following pieces:

Johann Sebastian Bach – Partita Nr. 4 D-Dur BWV 828

Georges Enescu – Sonata Nr. 1 fis-Moll Opus 24/1

Frédéric Chopin – Ballade Nr. 4 f-Moll op. 52

Claude Debussy – Reflets dans l’eau aus: Images, Heft I

Franz Liszt – La Lugubre Gondola (Die Trauergondel) and Ballade Nr. 2 h-Moll “Hero und Leander”