Ilya Poletaev joined the Astral Artists roster as a winner of its 2009 National Auditions. He leads a multifaceted career as both a classically trained pianist as well as a performer on early keyboards. As a solo pianist, Mr. Poletaev has appeared with the Toronto and Hartford symphony orchestras as well as with Orchestra Filarmonica “Mihail Jora” di Bacau. He 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. He also captured First Prize at the 2009 Grieg International Competition, and was a laureate of the 2008 National Stepping Stone Competition in Canada.
As a harpsichordist, Mr. Poletaev was the top prizewinner of the 2007 Southeastern Historical Keyboard Society harpsichord competition, and has been heard in such venues as Weill Hall in Carnegie Hall, the New York City’s Pierpont Morgan Library, the Aston Magna Early Music Festival, the Amherst Early Music Festival, and Yale’s Collection of Musical Instruments. As a continuo player, he has performed under such conductors as Andrew Lawrence-King, Steven Stubbs, [Nicholas McGegan], Simon Carrington, Graham O’Reilly, and Helmuth Rilling. As a chamber musician, Mr. Poletaev has performed alongside such distinguished artists as Robert Mann, Donald Weilerstein, Gary Hoffmann, Boris Berman, Paul Hersh, and Susan Narucki. He has also appeared at the Moab, Caramoor, Sarasota, Norfolk, Yellow Barn, Banff, the Orford Arts Center, and Stratford Summer Music festivals.
Upcoming engagements include a performance at the Caramoor Festival with renowned mezzo-soprano Susan Graham [and the orchestra of St. Luke’s], and solo recitals at Italy’s Festival Lago Maggiore, [the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan], and the Beethoven Festival in Warsaw, [Poland].
Mr. Poletaev began studying in Moscow at the age of 6, 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 Marietta Orlov (piano) and Colin Tilney (harpsichord)], and Master’s degrees from Yale, where he studied with Boris Berman. Between 2005 and 2007, he served on the faculty of the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. He is currently on the faculty of the Yale Department of Music as a lecturer in early music [and is a candidate for the Yale D.M.A].
