New York Philharmonic violinist and first-prize winner of the 16th International Violin Competition in Belgrade, Anna Rabinova, will join cellist Natalia Khoma and pianist Volodymyr Vynnytsky for the College of Charleston School of the Arts’ series Charleston Music Fest. This exuberant, chamber music performance will take place on Friday, April 6, 2012 at 8 p.m. in the Recital Hall of the Simons Center for the Arts, 54 Saint Philip St. Admission is $25. The repertoire will include Sergei Prokofiev’s “Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op.80,” Peter Tchaikovsky’s “Serenade Melancolique” and “Valse Scherzo,” and Franz Schubert’s “Piano Trio, Op. 100 D929.” Charleston Music Fest is in its sixth season and is presented by College of Charleston music faculty members Lee-Chin Siow and Natalia Khoma.
For tickets, call (843) 953-0935 or email charlestonmusicfest@gmail.com. Tickets will also be sold at the door one hour before curtain, based on availability. Reservations are strongly recommended. For more information, visit http://www.CharlestonMusicFest.com.
After having performed together for over ten years, Moscow Conservatory alumni Rabinova, Khoma and Vynnytsky will share with Charleston their love of works by Russian composers Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev, and early Romantic composer, Schubert. Each musician has a distinguished career as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician and has appeared individually and as a trio with major orchestras and premier chamber music series throughout the United States and Europe. Rabinova – Khoma – Vynnytsky is one of the most electrifying musical partnerships.
Khoma expounds, “It’s always enjoyable to play with Volodymyr, and I’m so excited that my former classmate, Anna, can join us for this intimate concert. We’ve all played together at various times around the United States and feel very connected. Also, this is the first time we will perform the Schubert piano trio together. His music is beautiful, and this piece evokes a sense of nature and its mystery.”
BIOGRAPHIES:
Violinist Anna Rabinova performs nationally and internationally as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician, and recording artist. She joined the New York Philharmonic in 1994, two years after arriving in the United States from her native Russia; in the 2008–09 season she was a soloist with the Orchestra in Bach’s “Brandenburg Concerto No. 5,” led by Lorin Maazel. As a recitalist, Rabinova has appeared in numerous halls, including the Shauspielhaus in Berlin, Tchaikovsky Philharmonie Hall in Moscow, and Moscow Conservatory Great Hall, as well as in venues in Rome, Leipzig, and Belgrade. In the U.S. she has performed at the Phillips Gallery (Washington, D.C.), Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Bargemusic, and on the Rockefeller University concert series.
Rabinova’s recordings include works by Schuman (for Germany’s Auris-Subtilis) and David Winkler’s Violin Concerto (Naxos); in 1998 she recorded sonatas by Brahms and Schubert for an NHK-TV (Japan) chamber series. She has been interviewed and has performed on WLIW-TV in New York, as well as on German and Russian radio.
Rabinova was born in Moscow and performed Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst’s Violin Concerto, and Paganini’s Violin Concerto with the Moscow State Symphony at the age of 13, later studying at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory with Leonid Kogan and Igor Bezrodnyi. She was a first-prize winner at the 16th International Violin Competition in Belgrade, in addition to winning the Bach International Competition in Leipzig, Germany, and the 1993 Concerto Competition at The Juilliard School. She has taught at the Gnessin Institute in Moscow, and is currently on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music, in addition to giving master classes in the U.S. and abroad.
Since winning the All-Ukrainian competition in 1981, cellist Natalia Khoma has won top prizes at the Budapest Pablo Casals Competition (1985), Marneukirchen (Germany, 1987) and the Tchaikovsky (Moscow, 1990) International Competitions, as well as First prize at the 1990 Belgrade International Cello Competition. A native of Lviv, Ukraine, Khoma studied at the Lviv Central Music School and the Lviv Conservatory and at the Moscow Conservatory. In the United States, she was awarded the Artist Diploma of the Boston University.
The first and only Ukrainian cellist to have won at the Tchaikovsky Competition, she has since distinguished herself as a recitalist and soloist with orchestras thorough the former USSR, as well as USA, Canada, South America, Germany, Norway, Belgium, Italy, France, Spain, Switzerland, Eastern Europe, South Africa and the Middle and Far East. Khoma has performed as a soloist with such leading ensembles as the Berlin Radio Orchestra, Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, Ukrainian State Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Radio Orchestra, Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Chamber Ensemble of New York City Symphony Orchestra, Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra and has had solo recitals and performed in Tchaikovsky Hall (Moscow), Merkin Hall and Weill Recital Hall (New York), Jordan Hall and Tsai Performance Center (Boston), Krannert Center (Illinois),Wharton Center (Michigan), Schauspielhaus (Berlin), Palais des Beaux Arts (Brussels), Amphitheatre Richelieu de la Sorbonne, Salons de Boffrand de la Presidence du Senat (Paris), Linder Auditorium (Johannesburg), Baxter Theatre Centre Concert Hall (Cape Town), Grand Halls of the Franz Liszt Music Academy (Hungary) Oslo Music Academy (Norway) and Teatro de Santa Isabel (Recife,) among many others.
Khoma has recorded for NHK-TV (Japan) and made CD recordings for Cambria, Blue Griffin, IMP, Naxos and Ongaku labels, as well as for Ukrainian, Russian German, Spanish, Yugoslavian, Israeli, and Hungarian Radio and Television, WNYC-FM in New York and WGBH-FM in Boston.
In addition to her performing activities, Khoma is a Professor of cello at College of Charleston in Charleston, SC and co-Founder and co-Director of Charleston Music Fest. On October 2008 she was awarded a title – Honorary Professor of Lviv State Academy of Music, Ukraine; on May 2010 – Honorary Professor of Odesa State Music Academy, Ukraine.
A laureate of the Margueritte Long-Jacques Thibaud International Piano Competition in Paris (1983), pianist Volodymyr Vynnytsky has performed with the leading orchestras and has appeared in solo recitals in many prestigious concert halls, including Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Steinway Hall, the Phillips Gallery in Washington D.C., the Great (Bolshoi) Hall at the Moscow Conservatory, the Theatre Champs d’Elysees, Amphitheatre Richelieu de la Sorbonne, Salons de Boffrand de la Presidence du Senat in Paris, St. John’s Smith Square in London, Philharmonic Big Hall of Columns (Kyiv), Odessa Philharmonic Theatre in Ukraine, Tsai Performance Center (Boston), Teatro de Santa Isabel in Recife, Brazil, Linder Auditorium in Johannesburg and Baxter Theatre Centre Concert Hall in Cape Town, South Africa among many others. He has also been featured on WQXR-FM in New York , NPR and NHK-TV (Japan).
Described by critics as possessing “incredible technique and deep musical understanding”, his recent performance in Charleston earned him glowing praise in The Post and Courier in a review entitled “Ukrainian pianist delivers excellence,” in which his playing is hailed as “a grand display of skill and precision that was breathtaking.”
Born in Lviv, Ukraine, Vynnytsky studied at the Lviv Music School for Gifted Children and later at the Moscow Conservatory. After earning his doctorate from the Moscow Conservatory, he taught at the Kyiv Conservatory and concertized extensively throughout Ukraine, the other republics of the former Soviet Union, Europe, USA, Canada, Central and South America and South Africa.
Vynnytsky was a visiting member of the piano faculty in SUNY at Purchase and at the University of Connecticut. In 2003 he was appointed music director of the Music and Art Center of Greene County. In October 2008 Vynnytsky was awarded the title – Honorary Professor of Lviv State Academy of Music, Ukraine; on May 2010 – Honorary Professor of Odessa State Music Academy, Ukraine.