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Anna Shelest is looking forward to bringing the music of Ukraine to Ventura County / THOUSAND OAKS Acorn

Hailed by The New York Times as a pianist of “a fiery sensibility and warm touch”, Anna Shelest is an international award-winning pianist who has thrilled the audiences throughout the world.
 

Champion of esoteric repertoire, Anna is collaborating with the legendary conductor Neeme Järvi on a project of recording complete works for piano and orchestra by Anton Rubinstein. The first CD in the set featuring Rubinstein Concerto no. 4 and Caprice Russe recorded live at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater in New York City has been released in 2018 to great critical acclaim, praised by Gramophone Magazine for “…power and agility… effortless effect… nuanced and incisive all round.” The following release featuring Rubinstein Piano Concertos No. 3 & 5 with Estonian National Symphony Orchestra was released in the Spring of 2019. Her solo release in 2019, ‘Donna Voce’ surveys the music by women composers from the last three centuries. 
 

Together with her husband Dmitri Shelest, Anna recorded Ukrainian Rhapsody, which explores works for solo and four hands piano by the composers of their homeland. A number of radio stations across the US has chosen "Ukrainian Rhapsody" as their Album of the Week.
 

An “effective collaborator” (The New York Times), Anna made her orchestral debut at the age of twelve with the Kharkiv Symphony Orchestra, playing Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 1. Since then she has been a soloist with some of the world-class orchestras such as Montreal Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony under Paavo Järvi, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, and Estonian National Symphony, among others. 
 

As a soloist she has appeared at Alice Tully Hall and Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall in New York City, The Kennedy Center in Washington DC,  Wiener Konzerthaus in Vienna, and Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. 
 

Born in Ukraine, Anna received her early music education at Kharkiv Special Music School. Since graduating The Juilliard School with a Masters Degree in the class of Jerome Lowenthal, Anna makes her home in New York City with her husband and two sons.  



THOUSAND OAKS Acorn WRITES…The pianist, who was born in Ukraine and started studying music there, is traveling from her home in New York City to perform a solo recital at 3 p.m. Sun., Feb.19 at United Methodist Church Westlake Village, 1049 S. Westlake Blvd. The concert is a benefit for people affected by war in Ukraine.

The program includes piano works by Mozart and Liszt as well as Ukrainian composers Valentin Silvestrov and Sergei Bortkiewicz. Shelest feels a particular connection to Bortkiewicz because he was born in her hometown of Kharkiv and had to flee Ukraine in 1919.


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