Written about the Friday May 12, 2006 Beach Cities Symphony Concert at El Camino College's Marsee Auditorium featuring the winners of the Music Teacher's Association of California South Bay Branch's 2006 Artists of the Future Concerto Competition:

"The most impressive performance of the evening was Ian Counts' interpretation of Sergei Rachmaninoff's Paino Concerto No. 1 in F sharp minor, Op. 1 (first movement).

"A sophomore at Palos Verdes Peninsula High School, the tall and lanky Counts, 16 hammered out the chords with amazing strength and efforlessly segued into feather-light runs in this intricate and colorful piece. Composed in 1890 when Rachmaninoff was only 17 years old and revised in 1917, this youthful piano concerto is less popular than the composer's second one, but it is no less spectacular and showcased Counts' formidable virtuosic skills."

Excerpted from a review by Kari Sayers published in the Sunday, May 14, 2006 Daily Breeze.