Natasha Paremski, this year's soloist with the California Youth Symphony, is a 15-year-old prodigy who was born in Moscow, lives in Fremont and studies with a teacher in Ohio.

Five years after she made her debut on the piano, Natasha has already won numerous awards, including the Bronislaw Kaper Award, sponsored by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. She is also the featured soloist on the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra's recently released CD of Rubinstein's "Piano Concerto No.4" and Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini."

At 2:30 Sunday, Natasha will play "Piano Concerto No.2" by Brahms with the California Youth Symphony at the San Mateo Performing Arts Center.

"Natasha is potentially one of the great artists of our time," said Earl Wild, her teacher and himself a former child prodigy.

Natasha began playing piano at 4 and made her professional debut at 9 with the El Camino Youth Symphony, playing Haydn's "Concerto in D Major."

The young prodigy began studying the piano with Nina Malikova in Russia when she was 4. After immigrating to the United States in 1995 with her parents, she has been studying with Wild.

They met when Wild was teaching a class in Santa Rosa two years ago. Wild was bowled over by her performance of the Brahms Paganini Variations.

"She gave a performance that was quite wonderful," Wild said in a telephone interview from his home in Columbus, Ohio. "Her abilities are fantastic. She has the agility of an insect, and understands the music in a way that belies her years."

Every two or three weeks, Natasha travels to Wild's home with her mother and stays for four days of intense lessons.

"The reason I go to Ohio to study with Earl Wild is that he is the only pianist remaining from the Golden Age and the only teacher who can teach," Natasha said. "He's a very good teacher who has lots of interesting ideas that never cease to flow."

Wild, 88, is considered one of the "last great romantic pianists" and has been mentor and teacher for young musicians for years. Students come from as far as Europe for weeklong piano lessons.

"Weekly lessons are for people with lesser talent," Wild said. "Weeklong lessons are for the career-intent students. It's important they have blocks of things to think about and the time to resolve them."

Natasha has been a soloist with more than a dozen orchestras, including the Oakland East Bay Symphony, the Fremont Symphony and the San Remo Symphony in Italy.

Natasha attended Washington High School in Fremont and graduated last year by taking the California State High School Proficiency Exam so she can concentrate full time on music.