(BRANCHBURG, NJ) -- Raritan Valley Community College's Arts & Design department will present the Shelest Piano Duo, a concert featuring the Ukrainian American pianists Anna and Dmitri Shelest, Tuesday, May 9, at 7:30pm. The event, the final performance in the 2022-2023 season of the MOZAIKA Concert Series, will be held in the Welpe Theatre at the College’s Branchburg campus.
The Shelests, a husband-and-wife musical team, began their musical training in their native Ukraine. The two have been praised by Fanfare Magazine for their “stirring performances of rare repertory.” The musicians made their Carnegie Hall debut in February 2018, and their CD release of Ukrainian Rhapsody brought renewed attention to the music of their homeland. Since then, the CD has been featured as the Album of the Week on a number of radio stations nationwide, including KUSC in Los Angeles and WCRB in Boston. Their inventive programs have brought them to a broad array of venues, from concert stages to state functions, and, in the words of former Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon, they “realized diplomacy through music.”
Dmitri Shelest began studying piano at the age of six in Ukraine and soon enrolled in the Kharkiv Special Music School, where he succeeded at his first contest at 11 years old. Playing piano brought him to the U.S. after he was offered a full scholarship to Northern Kentucky University (NKU) as a Bachelor’s Degree candidate in Piano Performance. While at NKU, Shelest won top prizes in various international piano competitions and participated in music festivals. Since relocating with his family to New York, he has been active as a chamber musician in addition to managing a record label and a piano retail showroom.
Hailed by The New York Times as a pianist of “a fiery sensibility and warm touch,” Anna Shelest is an award-winning musician who has thrilled audiences throughout the world. A champion of esoteric repertoire, she is currently collaborating with the legendary conductor Neeme Järvi on a project of recording Anton Rubinstein’s complete works for piano and orchestra. As a soloist, Anna Shelest has appeared at Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, New York City; the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC; Wiener Konzerthaus in Vienna; and Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City.
General admission for the RVCC concert is $15 per person; there is no charge for seniors and students.
The MOZAIKA Concert Series is designed to promote multicultural dialogue through the performance of music from the classical canon through the 21st Century.
The series is made possible by funds from the Somerset County Cultural & Heritage Commission, a partner of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
Raritan Valley Community College (RVCC) is located at 118 Lamington Road in Branchburg, New Jersey.
