About My Journey….
I grew up in Fastov, Ukraine - in a small town known as a major train stop on the way to the capital. My immediate and extended family members were working class professionals: cobblers, repairmen, hairdressers, and my mother - a laboratory technician. My grandparents and their siblings - Holocaust survivors whose first language was Yiddish, were musically gifted, but never able to sing or play beyond the vicinity of their home. However, when I turned 6, by sheer coincidence and as luck would have it, a piano teacher rented a room from my great grandmother, because the music school was across the street from her house.
Needless to say, my family remembered of their youngest member, and brought me to audition - to clap and sing, match pitch, and was admitted - at first to try and learn, but shortly after to work hard and strive.
Only seven years later, before I could finish my education in Ukraine, we moved - to the immigrant neighborhoods of Winnipeg, Manitoba in the middle of the Canadian prairies. Their Jewish community welcomed us with open arms, providing donations of clothing and kitchen wares. They made sure I attended a Jewish school; and a prominent community member took me to the best piano teacher in town, Mr. John Melnyk. Fate or luck were on my side again, Mr. Melnyk offered to teach me free of charge, and the Jewish Child and Family Services helped my mother buy a piano.
Back in Ukraine at my first piano lesson, my mother told me: “Learn to play the instrument, since no one can take away the livelihood you can earn with your own two hands.”
To my blue collar family, playing the piano was another trade, a skill to support yourself with, to better yourself with, and to bring joy to others with. While my mother worked three jobs to provide for my brother and I, it was my turn to take responsibility for finding solutions for my problems and aspirations alike, using music and my skills. Step by step, the courage to go on stage, turned into the courage to knock on doors once closed. Even more importantly, music became my life, and I became a musician. I went on to study piano around the world, starting at McGill University in Canada and continuing on to Arizona State University, Manhattan School of Music in New York City, Royal Academy of Music in London; receiving a Doctorate in Musical Arts at the University of Minnesota. My principal teachers include Mr. John Melnyk, Prof. Tatiana Sarkissova, Prof. Alexander Braginsky, and Dr. Marc Silverman
I appeared as a soloist and recitalist across North America and Europe. Also, my live performance recordings were played on National Public Radio’s (NPR) Performance Today (H.Villa-Lobos’ Mystic Sextet), on New York’s classical music station WQXR (B.Bartok’s Contrasts), and on Little Rock’s KLRE (G. Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue). My recording of original, big band version of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue was released on Naxos in the album Jazz Nocturne – American Concertos of the Jazz Age. Most recently, I can be heard playing chamber music by S. Prokofiev, A. Copland, and A. Kernis on the album Finding Home released in 2022 on Sony Classical Korea. This recording can be purchased on Apple Music and on Amazon.
As a performer of contemporary works, I premiered Speak No Evil by E. McKinley at the American Composer’s Forum, and performed For Don by M. Babbitt, with the composer in attendance for his 90th birthday celebration at Tanglewood’s Contemporary Music Festival. As the recipient of Peggy Rockefeller Memorial Fellowship at Tanglewood, I worked with James Levine, Dawn Upshaw, Yo-Yo Ma, Charles Rosen and Claude Frank.
Engagement highlights include Petrushka with San Diego Symphony, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy in Sydney, Australia, as well as performances in the US of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto #4, op.58, Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto #4, op.44, Mozart’s Piano Concerto #23, K488 and De Falla’s Evenings in the Gardens of Spain under the batons of M/Os Imre Pallo, Philip Mann, Jahja Ling and Beverly Everett, among others. In February of 2025, I performed Michael Daugherty’s Tombeau di Liberace with Texarkana Symphony under the baton of M/O Mann.
My life has been full of unexpected twists and turns, but music and the love of sharing it with others has been a constant. I am that child whose life trajectory was transformed by the instrument and by the art form that taught me discipline, perseverance and how to problem solve.
Early on in life I set out on a quest to draw lessons from everything I encounter and to learn from everyone I meet in life. This thirst for knowledge led me to translate music into new spheres - to become a university professor, a higher education administrator and a coach.
Now, I want to inspire the next generation of artists to learn to find their path to success.
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