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Margarita
Shevchenko SoBe
Music Institute TEACHING
Pianist Margarita Shevchenko, a musician of "uncommon sensitivity and refinement," is one of the leading young pianists on the international concert platform today. She has been the recipient of the "Special Chopin Prize" at five competitions in addition to seven top prizes she has won at major international piano competitions in Europe, Japan and the United States. The New York Times noted “...the delicacy of her scurrying pianissimo passage work was exemplary...” and Cleveland's music critic Donald Rosenberg called her "a musician to cherish" who has won the hearts of audiences, critics and competition judges around the world. Ms. Shevchenko has toured throughout the world, giving recital and concerto performances in the United States, Canada, throughout Europe, Brazil, Japan, Russia, Israel and South Africa. Highlights of her many orchestral appearances include performances with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Mendi Rodan and Cape Town Symphony under JoAnn Faletta, as well as the Polish National Philharmonic, Polish Radio Television Orchestra, the Ohio Chamber Orchestra, New Arts Symphony Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, and the Hamamatsu Symphony Orchestra, among others. Most recently (June 2005), Margarita Shevchenko debuted before an enthusiastic audience with the renowned Wuerttemberg Chamber Orchestra performing Edward Grieg’s Piano Concerto in a-minor under Ruben Gazarian at the Weilburg Schlosskonzerte in Germany. She has been invited to return as the featured soloist in the next season. The leading newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung noted “Pianist Margarita Shevchenko, who on short notice filled in for Tzimon Barto, proved to be sensational...” and “...it was as if one would hear the concerto for the first time...” Earlier, Ms. Shevchenko was the featured artist at Cleveland’s Severence Hall, and appeared with the Reno Chamber Orchestra and the New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra in addition to numerous recitals across the United States. Ms. Shevchenko has given solo recitals to critical acclaim at New York's Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, and other major halls including Gasteig Performance Center, Munich; Old Opera House, Frankfurt; Salle Cortot, and Chatelet Theater, Paris; Leeds City Hall, U.K, Tchaikovsky Hall, Moscow; Big Hall of Moscow Conservatory; Yamaha Hall, Tokyo, Japan; Minsk Philharmony; Jack Singer Concert Hall, Calgary; National Philharmony, Warsaw; Philharmony Brazilia; Cape Town Philharmony; South Africa, and Mann Auditorium, Tel-Aviv, Israel. Ms. Shevchenko has participated in such festivals as the Miami Festival, Strasbourg Festival, France; Chopin & George Sand Festival, La Chartre, France; Weilburger Schlosskonzerte, Palermo Festival, Sicily; Rocca Malatestiana Festival, Italy; Marienbad Chopin Festival, Czechoslovakia and the Yokohama Festival, Japan. Ms. Shevchenko has performed for concert series in Atlanta, Minnesota, Sanibel, Florida and San Juan, Puerto Rico. She has performed at the Cleveland Museum of Art, The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, and for the Chopin Society in Hannover, Germany. EDUCATION
PRINCIPAL TEACHERS
OTHER TEACHERS
PRIZES AND AWARDS
PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS
DISCOGRAPHY
OTHER EXPERIENCE / JUDGING
PRESS REVIEWS "Sensational…"
"Shevchenko is a
musician of uncommon sensitivity and refinement…she was an inspired
messenger of Chopin and her indentity with his mix of sweetness and
fire continues to grip the ears… In this artist's hands the mercurial
writing was clarified by gossamer passagework, thunderous octaves and
bubbling trills…The performance had breadth, tenderness and ample
flair…Shevchenko remains a musician to cherish." "…In a demanding
program that ranged from Bach's English Suite in G Minor to a stupendously
difficult recent sonata by the Australian composer Carl Vine, Ms. Shevchenko
played with scrupulous clarity and abundant technique. In Schubert and
Chopin, the delicacy of he scurrying pianissimo passagework was exemplary…" "Russian virtuoso
thrilled listeners with her clear articulation, confident control, exquisite
tonal balance and wonderful dynamic contrasts…It was an exhilarating
experience…" "…Concepts such
as 'sovereign', 'masterful', 'virtuoso', 'elegant', 'brilliant' - only
minimally describe the performance style of this incredibly talented
pianist, who defies easy description…. Pianist showed herself to
be the master of agogik, especially when it came to the crucial art
of rubato interpretations. Nowhere was there even a hint of superficiality,
cheap searching for special effects. Technical superiority was constantly
the servant of the music. …Certainly a spectacular evening which
set high standards in interpretation of Chopin." "…undeniably
a big talent…tone is resonant, her technique flexible and strong…uncompromising
fluency and purity of outline…tenacity of purpose and headlong
brilliance…she understood the breadth and depth of the music." "…The audience
was ecstatic over her colorful dynamic interpretative power and a virtuoso
technique that allows her crystal clear articulation to interpret the
composers of her choice most eloquently." "Margarita Shevchenko
is one of those rarely encountered young pianists who treat their instrument
as a partner rather than 'an enemy to be beaten into submission.' Under
her hands the piano produces sounds as divergent as those of a singer,
full orchestra, soft background of strings or even a brass ensemble." "A pensive master,
Russia's Margarita Shevchenko…Her Scarlatti emerged with quiet
assurance, full of dynamic gradations and elastic phrasing…Chopin
of transporting musicality…with gossamer sonority and melting sense
of poetry……crystalline, poised pianism… Balance, caressing
lyricism and graceful passagework…floating dream of myriad colors…showed
her ability to create a musical reverie by weaving lines in seamless
fashion, producing majestic sonorities or hushed phrases and juxtaposing
darkness with brilliance. No pianist in the competition matched Shevchenko
in terms of serenity, poetry and delicacy". |
