UAB’s Yakov Kasman to perform one of world’s most demanding piano works as soloist with Russian orchestra

The Saratov Philharmonic Orchestra has invited Yakov Kasman to perform Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2 as a soloist to open its 70th concert season.

yakov kasman 2015 2University of Alabama at Birmingham Professor of Piano Yakov Kasman, DMA, will be a soloist with Saratov Philharmonic Orchestra in the performance of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2.

The performance is set for Friday, Oct. 7. Saratov is a major Russian city located on the Volga River, about 500 miles southeast of Moscow. The city is well-known for its long musical traditions, including having one of the first music conservatories in Russia.

Kasman is a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Music.

“This concerto is considered to be one of the two or three most demanding pieces in piano repertoire,” Kasman said. “I performed with this orchestra last December Medtner’s Piano Concerto No. 2, and I am now invited to play Prokofiev with them on the opening of their 70th concert season. I am very honored and look forward to performing one of the world’s greatest piano concertos with that wonderful orchestra.”