Anna Shelest

April 9, 2012.  The Ukrainian-born pianist Anna Shelest has delighted audiences throughout the world.  Born in Kharkiv, the second-largest city of Ukraine, she began her piano studies at the age of six. She attended the Kharkiv Special Music School for Gifted Children, and at the age eleven she performed at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris as the youngest prize-winner of the Milosz Magin International Piano Competition.  Anna continued her education in the US, first with Sergei Polusmiak at Northern Kentucky University and privately with Eugene and Elizabeth Pridonoff of the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music.  She then entered the Juilliard School and received her Masters in Music in the class of Jerome Lowenthal.  Anna won awards in a number of international piano competitions, including the Louisiana International Piano Competition; the Kawai American Recording Contest; and the Jefferson Symphony Young Artists Competition in Denver, among others.

Ms. Shelest made her orchestral debut at age 12 with the Kharkiv Symphony Orchestra, playing Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 1.  Since then she has performed on many prestigious stages around the world.  In the spring of 2010 she debuted at the Alice Tully Hall and at Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall in New York City.  She played at the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory, the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, and gave recitals in Canada, France, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, and South Africa.  As a soloist she performed with some of the world’s most renowned orchestras, such as the Montreal Symphony, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, under Maestro Paavo Jarvi, and the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra. Among her other appearances are with the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra, Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra, and Kentucky Symphony Orchestra.

An avid chamber musician, Ms. Shelest established the successful Shelest Piano Duo with her husband Dmitry (in 2011 they won the Bradshaw-Buono International Piano Competition).  She’s also collaborated with the Amernet String Quartet, Cincinnati ARC Ensemble, and musicians from the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

Recently Anna played a concert in Chicago.  On her program was Beethoven’s Sonata No. 24 in F-sharp Major, Op. 78 (here) and Nocturne No.6, Op. 63 in D-flat Major by Gabriel Fauré (here).  While her repertoire is wide, covering music from the Baroque to contemporary, she has a special affinity for Russian piano music.  She recently released a CD of Rachmaninov’s Etudes-tableaux op. 39 and Moments Musicaux op. 16 and another one with Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition as well as works by Tchaikovsky and Glinka.  Here’s Valse in A Flat Major, Op. 40 No. 8 by Tchaikovsky.  You can listen to Mikhail Glinka’s romance The Lark in the piano transcription by Mily Balakirev here.

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