Biography

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Kasman has 15 CD recordings with Calliope and Harmonia Mundi. His latest recording, Tchaikovsky, released in 2005, received an R9 Classica/Repertoire Award. His recording of Shostakovich’s Concerto No. 1 and Schnittke’s Concerto for Piano and Strings with the Kaliningrad Orchestra, released in 2000, received the "Choc du Monde de la Musique" award in France, was rated highest by Classics Today.com and referred to as "superlative" by the American Record Guide. Other recordings include the complete Prokofiev sonatas on two CDs which received the "Grand Prix de la Nouvelle Academie du Disque Francais"; six Haydn sonatas; a pairing of Mussorgsky’s "Pictures at an Exhibition" with Stravinsky’s "Petrouchka" and a rare release of Rachmaninoff’s two piano sonatas. His CD recordings of Lukas Foss’ Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Pacific Symphony, rated highest by Classics Today.com; and Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Moscow State Symphony pared with Prokofiev’s Visions Fugitives were released in 2001. The Shostakovich Piano Quintet recorded with the Talich String Quartet was released in 2002. A CD containing the Shostakovich Cello and Piano Sonata, and the Viola and Piano Sonata transcribed for cello was released in 2003 with Czech cellist Petr Prause, receiving top ratings in France by Repertorie and Dipason and reviewed in the American Record Guide. Released in 2004 is a CD of Scriabin sonatas 6-10 completing a two CD set of all 10 sonatas.

Kasman is a Professor of Piano and Artist-in-Residence at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

- Dec '05
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Yakov Kasman was born in the Russian city of Orel, a city of notable musical and literary importance. It is located about 220 miles south of Moscow.           Yakov Kasman's ability to sing and remember melodies at age 5 earned him an early entry into the local public music school. There, his piano teacher, Zinovy Vainshtein, greatly influenced his musical development. Mr. Kasman
remained at the music school for ten years, receiving a thorough training in musictheory, harmony, music history, music literature and the piano. The high quality of this music education prepared Kasman to audition for the acceptance into the Music College of the Moscow Conservatory at the age of 15.  The audition process was rigorous. In addition to taking the exams, he had the additional pressure of having been told that no one from the provinces could ever make it through the auditions and that people from prestigious and well connected families in Moscow would be chosen over him. Undaunted, Yakov made the highest grades of anyone auditioning, was accepted and completed the four-year program.

The regimen of piano study at the Music College of the Moscow Conservatory included certain rules.  During the first two years, students complete a required list of technical works by Bach, Czerny, Clementi, Cramer, Moskowski and other composers.  Most students were not to play Chopin's Etudes until their third year.  Taking the next logical step after four years at the music college, Yakov applied to the Moscow Conservatory itself, again enduring rigorous

entrance exams and nay-sayers, and passing with ease. Mikhail Voskressensky, bronze medal winner at the 1962 Van Cliburn Competition was his professor.  Kasman learned of that competition for the first time from reading Voskressensky's biography.  Yakov remembers "At this time I was not worried about the future.  I was happy to be a student at the Moscow Conservatory, to be living in the city and studying music."  The Russian Army's call to fulfill two years of mandatory service interrupted his happy existence.  While it is possible through connections to get out of the mandatory service, Yakov had no one to help him avoid serving in the regular army.

Stationed in the extreme eastern part of the country near the border with China and Korea, Yakov spent the first year working with missile defenses.  He
joined an unofficial military band, which consisted of seven members who performed at marches, parades and local funerals.  It was the latter that provided most of the band's business and pay.  Yakov played the drums, trumpet and tuba.  The most frequently requested piece was Chopin's Funeral March, for which he played tuba.  Yakov recalls: "It's very easy.  Only two notes, B-flat and D-flat!"
Word of Yakov's talent and music knowledge soon spread and he was transferred to an official military band in a nearby city, which provided a better experience for him and more importantly, a piano on which he could practice.  He even gave a solo performance of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No.2 with the band and for the first time began to believe that a career of a professional pianist might be possible.  Yakov recalls, "I actually felt that during that second year in the army, I made big progress.  I don't know how it happened.  Maybe I was just so incredibly happy that I had survived the previous year!"

After the obligatory two years, Yakov returned to the Moscow Conservatory driven by the sense of losing two years.  At the end of the first year back at the Conservatory, he entered two international competitions. Entering competitions in Russian at this time was not easy.  A system was in place to ensure that only the best Russian musicians went to competitions.  First, an applicant had to succeed at a competition involving all of the other conservatory students, and then another contest involving

students from all over the Soviet Union.  Only the winners of these two rounds could compete at the international level.  Yakov successfully competed in the rounds and won prizes in the international competitions, something he had never dreamed of.

          After finishing his degree at the Conservatory, Yakov was selected as one of only a few to continue an additional two year program called the Aspirantura, the Russian equivalent of a Ph.D.  Upon completing the additional two year program, Yakov was invited to teach at the Music College of the Conservatory, a privileged job.  While the position offered little money, it did offer prestige and the opportunity to work with the best students.  At the end of his first year of teaching, in order to prove himself as the newest person on the faculty, Yakov entered the Tenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and won the silver medal.  At the beginning of his second year as a professor, students were asking to study with him. Winners of the Van Cliburn Competition are given two years of concert engagements and career management and Yakov saw the two years filled with performances. 

          Since his American debut, he has given concerts in the United States, Russia, Europe, and Asia, including recitals in New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Cleveland, St. Louis, Kansas City, St. Paul, Atlanta, and Birmingham. He has appeared as soloist with more than forty orchestras including the Brevard, Tupelo, Imperial, Albany (GA), Illinois, Dayton, West Virginia, Pacific Symphony, Syracuse Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Memphis Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Ft. Worth Symphony, Alabama Symphony, Huntsville Symphony, the Athens State Orchestra, the Orchestre de Lille in France, the Singapore Symphony, the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, the Moscow Philharmonia Orchestra and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. He also teaches, conducts master classes and adjudicates piano solo and concerto competitions.

Yakov resides in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife, Tatiana, also a gifted pianist and organist, and their daughters, Aleksandra and Dina.  He is now on the faculty at the University of Alabama at Birmingham as Assistant Professor of Piano/Artist-in-Residence.

- '04