Pianist and conductor Victor Shlyakhtenko has appeared as a soloist with more than a dozen orchestras and performed in venues including Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Leipzig Gewandhaus, and Chicago’s Jay Pritzker Pavilion. Born and raised in Los Angeles, he began piano studies at age five and made his orchestral debut at twelve. His early studies were at the Colburn School of Performing Arts.

Recent distinctions include First Prize in the 2026 International Keyboard Odyssiad competition, where he also received the award for Best Performance of an American Work; and First Prize in the Chamber Orchestra of the Springs Emerging Soloist Competition. Earlier honors include First Prize in the Los Angeles International Liszt Competition and Second Prize in the Waring International Piano Competition.

As a concerto soloist, Victor has performed works by Beethoven, Chopin, Grieg, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Clara Schumann, and Brahms. His performances have been featured on NPR, Aspen Public Radio, and LACMA’s Sundays Live concert series. He was a U.S. National Chopin Foundation Scholarship recipient from 2016 to 2019 and a Young Scholar of the Lang Lang International Music Foundation from 2018 to 2020. His recent appearances have included performances with the South Coast Symphony and Panama City Symphony, as well as solo recitals for the Grand Piano Series in Naples, Florida, and the Palm Springs International Piano Competition.

Alongside his work as a pianist, Victor has pursued orchestral conducting since 2017. He made his conducting debut in 2019 with Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture and has since participated in masterclasses with Neil Varon, Diane Wittry, and Kirk Trevor. He served as a Conducting Scholar at the 2026 Eastern Music Festival and is currently pursuing a master’s degree at the Frost School of Music in Miami under the direction of Gerard Schwarz.

Victor’s principal piano teachers have included Fabio Bidini, Stanislav Ioudenitch, and José Ramón Méndez, with additional mentorship from Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Kevin Kenner.