Behzod Abduraimov almost didn’t become a pianist. At age 6 he failed his very first piano examination, getting stuck in the middle of Schumann’s The Wild Horsemanseveral times before his teacher finally told him to stop. “After that my teacher said I would never be able to play a piece on piano from beginning to end without making mistakes, ever,” says the 21-year-old Park University student with a laugh. “She said, quit music.” But the young Uzbek native didn’t quit: In fact, whenever an obstacle came between him and the piano, it made him upset and anxious, and inspired him to work harder. “I wouldn’t feel happy that, Oh, now I can go play with my friends outside. Instead I would feel bad, because I couldn’t imagine life without music.” In recent years that very determination has led Behzod to the top of the piano world, his rapid ascent capped by a relatively easy victory at the 2009 London International Piano Competition. That immediately led to management, a recording contract with Decca, and worldwide concert engagements: His 35 or so bookings this season include concerts in Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, Switzerland, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Canada and the UK.

This November 18^th through the 20^th at the Kauffman Center’s Helzberg Hall, Behzod makes his Kansas City Symphony debut, performing Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with Michael Stern on the podium. Kansas Citians have known of Behzod’s artistry since the time he arrived here at age 16 to study with Van Cliburn Competition Gold Medalist Stanislav Ioudenitch: His frequent recitals and other concert appearances at Park’s International Center for Music quickly made him into something of a local celebrity. But it was not until the London victory – which was attended by a wide array of influential managers, conductors and others – that the rest of the world began to get a glimpse of his magic. The London Daily Telegraph described his final performance in the competition as “the most enthralling roller-coaster ride of a Prokofiev Third Concerto imaginable. Recalling it, my knuckles still go white.” (You can see excerpts of this on youtube.com, by searching Behzod’s name.)

Suddenly the music world was abuzz about this cherubic powerhouse, and in subsequent months conductors like Vladimir Ashkenazy took him under their wing. Three powerful management firms fought over him: He finally settled on London-basedHarrison Parrott, which represents Maurizio Pollini, Nikolai Lugansky, Gil Shaham, Leila Josefowicz, Christian Tetzlaff andTruls Mork. Later he would play an acclaimed Wigmore Hall recital and make his debut with the London Philharmonic. His Decca recording of music by Liszt, Prokofiev and Saint-Saëns is due out in the spring. “We are very pleased to welcome Behzod to our roster of artists, particularly so as he is the first young pianist we have signed in a very long time,” says Decca managing director Paul Moseley.  “I have seen his rare ability to electrify an audience while always remaining faithful to the intentions of the composer.”

Born in Tashkent, Behzod studied first with his mother, Gulsun, a significant pianist in her own right, who also taught his siblings. Mom quickly recognized the boy’s gifts. “She had the dream that one of her children would become a musician and pianist, because she loved music so much.” Later Behzod studied with legendary Tashkent teacher Tamara Popovich, who helped to lay the foundation for his prodigious technique, and at age 15 he went to Italy’s International Piano Academy Lake Como for his first lessons with Stanislav, a fellow Uzbek who was known to him through his Cliburn victory in 2001. “He has supported me and believed in me from the beginning,” Behzod says of Stanislav. “For me it’s always about the discovery of music, and from the first lesson when we met in Italy, he showed me many different things.” Stanislav recalls those first lessons too, and likened the young Behzod to a newborn Arabian colt, “awkward and with its legs too long – with this huge potential but not really developed.” He remembers Behzod playing Liszt’s demanding Mephisto Waltz, “and the tendency was to play faster and faster and faster. It’s normal, I was the same way. … But then we started talking about the composer’s intentions, and the musical text, and it was complicated for him at first.”

When it came time to go to college, Behzod could have enrolled at the Juilliard School or the Curtis Institute, but he knew he’d already found his teacher, and his teacher was at Park. “The whole reason is Stanislav Ioudenitch. … If I were to have chosen to go to Juilliard at that time, I would be the biggest fool. Coming to study with Stanislav was the most ‘right’ decision I ever made.” As Behzod’s pianism has matured, so has his working relationship with Stanislav: Now he brings more of his own ideas to the lessons, he says, and discussions ensue. “The process is much faster than it was two or three years ago,” Behzod says. Stanislav adds: “And of course it is not just the teaching but the mentoring. I’m trying to give him all that I know, not just the piano but the career, the planning for the future, the logistics, trying to record a better CD, a lot of things. It’s really like a family. I am always with my students, we are always in my home, we like to gather and talk about all kinds of different things, not just the piano.” When asked about Behzod’s potential for the future, Stanislav doesn’t hold back: “Somewhere between Horowitz and Cortot. … He makes a very big impression with an audience – when this incredible energy, this unbelievable force he has, comes out from the stage.”