One of the world's leading string quartet, the St. Petersburg was founded in 1985 as the Leningrad Quartet by Alla Aranovskaya, Alla Krolevich and Leonid Shukayev. Boris Vayner joined the Quartet in 2004. All of them graduates of the Leningrad Conservatory. The Quartet blazed a trail through international chamber music competitions, winning First Prize at the All-Soviet Union String Quartet Competition, the Silver Medal and a Special Prize at the Tokyo International Competition of Chamber Ensembles, First Prize and both Special Prizes at the Vittorio Gui International Competition for Chamber Ensembles in Florence, Italy, and First Prize and the "Grand Prix Musica Viva" at the International Competition for Chamber Ensembles in Melbourne, Australia.
When the city of Leningrad resumed its historic name, the Quartet changed its name to the St. Petersburg String Quartet. The Quartet has continued its ascendancy, building a reputation of worldwide proportions including a Grammy nomination, "Best Record" honors in both Stereo Review and Gramophone Magazines, and the Chamber Music America/WQXR Prize for Best CD of 2001.
From 1997 to 2003, the St. Petersburg Quartet was in residence at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio where, in their inaugural year, they performed the complete cycle of fifteen Shostakovich string quartets.
The Quartet has appeared in prestigious music series and festivals in North America, Europe and Asia. The quartet’s numerous engagements include an opening night performance at the Mostly Mozart festival at Lincoln Center, NY, and Lincoln Center's "Great performances" series; NYC's Frick Collection and 92nd Street Y series; Library of Congress in Washington, DC; Canadian débuts in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver;the Caramoor, Piccolo Spoleto, and Music Mountain Festivals. The Quartet has toured Great Britain (including seven concerts at London's Wigmore Hall and numerous British festivals), Germany, the Netherlands (including the Concertgebouw), Ireland, Iceland, Poland, Japan, Spain, Italy, France, Belgium ,South Korea, Taiwan, Russia, and Mexico.
The Quartet has toured Great Britain (including seven concerts at London's Wigmore Hall and numerous British festivals), Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland, Iceland, Poland, Japan, Spain, Italy, France, Belgium ,South Korea, Taiwan, Russia, and Mexico.
The Quartet has recorded the complete cycle of Shostakovich string quartets on the Hyperion label, as well as the Prokofiev and Glazunov quartets on the Delos label and the Borodin quartets on the Dorian label. Their disk of Shostakovich Quartets Nos. 3, 5 & 7 on the Sony label was a Grammy nominee, and their disk of Shostakovich Quartets Nos. 5, 7 & 9 won the Chamber Music America/WQXR Radio Prize for Best Chamber CD (2001).
In 2008 St. Petersburg Quartet performed at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Amsterdam Concertgebouw. The Quartet collaborated with such renowned artists as Michel Tree, Peter Donohoe,Ida Kavafian.
This season the Quartet released new CDs of Ravel, Debussy and Borodin quartets . Next season they will release Tchaikovsky complete chamber music works.
Audiences from Toronto to Tokyo, from Lithuania to London and in music halls across the United States give the St. Petersburg Quartet standing ovations. No classical CD collection is complete without recordings by the acclaimed group. This season the Quartet released new CDs of Ravel, Debussy and Borodin quartets . Next season they will release Tchaikovsky complete chamber music works.
B.M.A., M.M.A., D.M.A. St. Petersburg Conservatory, Russia.
Alla Aranovskaya was born in August, 1958 in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad), Russia. She started to play piano when she was two and a half years old , and violin at the age of six.
Ms. Aranovskaya graduated the Rimsky-Korsakov Music College in 1977. In 1985 she graduated the St. Petersburg Conservatory, receiving a Master degree in 1987 and a Doctor of Music in 1989.
She was a winner of the All-Russia Solo Violin Competition in 1985. From 1987 until 2001 she was Professor of Violin at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Russia. Her solo appearances include St. Petersburg State Capella Orchestra, Kazan Philharmonic, Moldova National Orchestra, Ulyanivsk Philharmonic.
As a founding member of the Saint Petersburg String Quartet Ms. Aranovskaya won First Prize at the All-Soviet Union String Quartet Competition, the Silver Medal and a Special Prize at the Tokyo International Competition of Chamber Ensembles, First Prize and both Special Prizes at the Vittorio Gui International Competition for Chamber Ensembles in Florence, Italy, and First Prize and the "Grand Prix Musica Viva" at the International Competition for Chamber Ensembles in Melbourne, Australia.
Ms. Aranovskaya was a faculty member of the Oberlin Conservatory from (1997 to 2003). She was a jury member of several major competitions including the 2004 Melbourne, Australia International Chamber Music Competition
Ms. Aranovskaya's students have won numerous prizes at competitions, including the Grand Prize at the Coleman Chamber Music Competition in Pasadena, CA (Erato Quartet, Oberlin), First Prize at Germany's "Jugend Musiziert" (Jeunesses Musicales) Competition, the Sarasate competition in Spain, the Beethoven Competition in Austria, Corpus Christi and Tchaikovsky competition for young musicians.
B.M.A., M.M.A. St. Petersburg Conservatory, Russia
Alla Krolevich (Goryainova) was born in 1964 in the town Polevskoy in the Sverdlovsk region. In 1982, she graduated with distinction from the special music school of the Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg) State Conservatory. In the same year, she entered the Leningrad (St. Petersburg) Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory.
In 1985 she was invited to play with the Leningrad Conservatory String Quartet (the future St. Petersburg String Quartet) under the supervision of Professor Ovcharek, first violinist of the legendary Taneyev String Quartet. With the quartet, Alla became the Grand Prix winner of the All-Soviet Union Quartet Competition in Voronezh in 1986, and a laureate of the First International Shostakovich Competition in St. Petersburg the same year. The quartet also received a special prize for the best performance of quartets of Shostakovich.
In 1990 she and her family emigrated to Israel, where she played in the Israel Symphony Orchestra (Rishon Letsion) and in the Israel Opera and Ballet Theater. She participated actively in chamber music projects under the aegis of the orchestra and of the theater. Alla rejoined the St. Petersburg String Quartet in October 2005.
B.M.A., M.M.A. St. Petersburg Conservatory, Russia
M.M.A. New England Conservatory, Boston, MA
Boris Vayner was born in Novosibirsk, Russia. His professional background includes Novosibirsk Music College and St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he studied with Aleksey Lyudevig. While studying, Mr.Vayner played recitals in St. Petersburg(Russia), Drammen (Norway), Berlin(Germany), and took part in the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival.
Mr.Vayner was a founding member of the Krasny String Quartet, which received 1st prize at the Gartow Fund Chamber Music Competition in St. Petersburg in 1999, and recorded all the quartets of Vissarion Shebalin for Olympia label. As a soloist Mr.Vayner appeared with St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonie. He also received 2nd prize in the Gartow Fund Solo Competition in St. Petersburg in 2002.
Mr.Vayner was an assistant principal viola of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra and a principle viola of the Novosibirsk Youth Orchestra.
Mr.Vayner moved to the US in 2003 to study at the New England Conservatory, in the class of Carol Rodland, and he earned Master of Music in 2005. He has attended master classes by Kim Kashkashian and Karen Tuttle, and played with Boston Symphony.
Since 2005 Boris Vayner has been a viola player of the St. Petersburg String Quartet, intensively touring in US, Europe and Asia.
B.M.A., M.M.A. D.M.A. St. Petersburg Conservatory, Russia
Founding Cellist of the St. Petersburg Quartet, Leonid Shukayev was born in the St. Petersburg. He started studying music at age 6. While he was at the college(1975-1979), he became very interested in chamber music and started attending classes of Vissarion Soloviev, the violist of the Taneyev String Quartet .
At the Conservatory, he studied cello with Emanuel Fishmann, the teacher of Misha Maisky and Boris Pergamenshikov. His chamber ensemble teachers included Tamara Fidler and Vladimir Ovcharek, first violinist of the Taneyev String Quartet who represented the older tradition of performance in St. Petersburg .
Mr.Shukayev finished the Conservatory with honors and was invited to work with conductor Eugene Mravinski in the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra.
He also was the professor at the Rimsky-Korsakov music college and St. Petersburg Conservatory.
With the Quartet he won First Prize at the All-Soviet Union String Quartet Competition, the Silver Medal and a Special Prize at the Tokyo International Competition of Chamber Ensembles, First Prize and both Special Prizes at the Vittorio Gui International Competition for Chamber Ensembles in Florence, Italy, and First Prize and the "Grand Prix Musica Viva" at the International Competition for Chamber Ensembles in Melbourne, Australia.
For the past 30 years of his extensive teaching career Viktor Basis has been leading his students all the way from basics to the highest level of musicianship, watching them win top prizes at prestigious national and international competitions all over the world and obtain positions at major orchestras and universities. Mr. Basis has received numerous teaching excellence awards and high achievement awards from the Russian government.
Viktor Basis received his professional education at the Gnessin Academy of Music in Moscow where he studied with such renowned musicians as Mikhail Fikhtengoltz (violin), Valentine Berlinsky (string quartet), and Vladimir Tonkha (chamber music).
While on the faculty of Orel Music College and Kalinnikoff School for Gifted Children, Mr. Basis became a founder and concertmaster of the Divertissement Chamber Ensemble, and later, was appointed the artistic director of Orel Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, which toured extensively throughout the former Soviet Union. Mr. Basis’ performances, both as a conductor and a soloist, were broadcasted on national radio and television. He also gave numerous master classes throughout the former Soviet Union. Mr. Basis was the Dean of Orel Music College for eleven years.
From 1993 until 1997, Mr. Basis was invited to coach and perform chamber music at the Summer Academy Music Festival in Yuliveska and Suolahti, Finland. In 2003 and 2004 he participated in the Soesterberg Music Festival in Holland.
Since his arrival in the United States in 1999, Mr. Basis has been on the faculty of the Special Music School and Lucy Moses School for Music and Dance at the Kaufman Center in New York, Queensborough Community College, and Long Island Conservatory, teaching violin, viola, and chamber music. Currently Viktor Basis resides in the New York-New Jersey area with his family.
Gary Levinson is the senior associate concertmaster of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Chosen at age twenty-one by Zubin Mehta to join the New York Philharmonic, he made his New York Philharmonic solo debut in 1991, the same year he earned his Master of Music degree at the Juilliard School. His teachers included Dorothy DeLay, Masao Kawasaki, Glenn Dicterow and Felix Galimir. A laureate of the Jacques Thibaud and Romano Romanini International Violin competitions, he toured Italy last spring, opening the chamber music season of the Fondazione di Romano Romanini Recital Series with a solo recital at Teatro San Carlo. As a chamber musician Mr. Levinson has collaborated with renowned artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Lukas Foss, Lynn Harrell, Eugenia Zukerman and Christopher O'Riley. As first violinist of the Elysium String Quartet, he recorded two critically acclaimed CDs and toured Greece as part of the annual Mykonos International Music Festival.
Mr. Levinson's recordings have been released on the Cala, New World and Elysium Records labels. His CD including music of Prokofiev, Beethoven, Mozart and Martinu was released in January,2007. Due out in January 2009 are the complete violin and piano sonatas of Beethoven with Asher Fisch at the piano.
Eugene Osadchy is Associate Professor of Cello at the University of North Texas, co-Artistic Director of the Vetta Chamber Music Series, and Principal cellist with the CBC Vancouver Orchestra. Mr. Osadchy regularly performs throughout Canada, the United States and Europe. He has participated in numerous chamber music series and festivals around the world including Amsterdam and Groningen International Festivals in Holland, Music at Blair Athol in Scotland, the Castel Franko Festival in Italy, the Mozart Festival in Woodstock, Illinois, as well as Vancouver, Banff, Seattle, Sitka and Maui Music Festivals. He has appeared at the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto, the Lincoln Centre Alice Tully Hall and Weil Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. In addition, Mr. Osadchy makes frequent appearances at the Bargemusic Series in New York, the Autumn Classic series in Anchorage, Chamber Music International in Dallas, Strings in the Mountains at Steamboat Springs and Durango, Colorado, and the Mozart Festival in Long Island, New York.
Born in Kiev to a family of professional musicians, Eugene started his musical education at the age of five on the piano and a year later on the cello. After graduating from The Special Music School for Talented and Gifted Children, Eugene continued his education at the Kiev State Conservatory of Music and graduated with honors. Mr. Osadchy became a Laureate of the Republic of the Ukraine Cello Competition. Other music credits include composition of two film scores and releases of several CDs on Melodia label featuring Mr. Osadchy's compositions and arrangements. He also has numerous recordings on the CBS label.
Daredjan Baya Kakouberi, pianist, was born in Tbilisi, Georgia, and made her debut at the age of eleven. After graduating from Tbilisi Special School of Music for the Talented and Gifted, she entered the Moscow Conservatory, where she continued her studies on the Master's and Doctoral levels under the tutelage of famous pianist and professor, Sergei Dorenski, and Tchaikovsky Competition Gold Medalist Vladimir Krainev.
Ms. Kakouberi appeared on Rustavi 2, Republic of Georgia television network, as host of 'Late Night Classics' -- a recap of daily musical events in Tbilisi, complete with interviews and reportage on the cultural life of the city. In 1988, while earning her doctorate degree from the Moscow Conservatory, she recorded a disc of solo piano music for Melodya Records, the primary state run classical music label in the ex-Soviet Union.
In 2008 she collaborated with violinist Gary Levinson in the recording of the complete sonatas for piano and violin by Beethoven. The project was spearheaded by the Classical Music Recording Foundation. The four CD set is slated for release n 2009. Ms. Kakouberi has appeared as a soloist with orchestras in Moscow, Georgia, Armenia, Latvia, Italy and the United States. As a noted chamber musician she has appeared numerous times at the Music in the Mountains Festival in Durango, CO, where she was also a frequent soloist. In the summer of 2009, Ms. Kakouberi is engaged to tour China as a soloist in Rhapsody in Blue. Due to her well-known teaching reputation she is also rounding out the cultural event by presenting master classes in the leading conservatories in Mainland China.
In 1996, she was among the 'World's Ten Most Distinguished Pianists' chosen by the Palm Beach Invitational Piano Competition. In the summer of 2000, Ms. Kakouberi was chosen as recipient of the 'Most Outstanding and Distinguished Pianist' award in the IBLA International Competition in Italy. In addition to her solo recitals, she has appeared as guest soloist in concerts throughout the US and Europe, including performances at Moscow Conservatory Great Hall, Steinway Hall in New York, and the Cerritos Center for Performing Arts in California. As a chamber performer Ms. Kakouberi made her debut at Carnegie Weill Recital Hall in New York in February 2002. Ms. Kakouberi returns to that venue in scheduled to appear on the CMRF annual gala concert in the fall of 2009 at Weill Hall.
Noted as an outstanding Chamber Music Artist, Ms. Kakouberi is the Artistic Director of the Blue Candlelight Music Series in Dallas, Texas, where she enjoys collaboration with internationally renowned artists. She is a household name at the major venues in North Texas, such as the University of North Texas in Denton, TX, the Dallas Museum of Art and the Eisemann Center for the Performing Arts where she has appeared as a concerto soloist. Ms. Kakouberi regularly appears with her most gifted students at the Giovanni Adulti Concert Series held at the Piano Gallery in Dallas.