Anna Balakerskaia, a three-time winner of the Tchaikovsky International Competition Best Accompaniment Award, shares the Hylton Performing Arts Center stage with four musical friends performing chamber works by great Russian composers. Her ensemble consists of violinists Ricardo Cyncynates and Zino Bogachek, cellist Amy Frost Baumgarten and Claire Eichhorn on clarinet. These are among the many friends with whom she regularly collaborates playing the chamber works she so dearly loves. Her friends appear regularly throughout the country, and locally with the Kennedy Center Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra and the Washington National Opera Orchestra.
Anna Balakerskaia
| If you go |
| Where: GMU Hylton Performing Arts Center, Gregory Family Theater |
| When: 3 p.m. Sunday |
| Info: $15; 888-945-2468 or hyltoncenter.org |
Before emigrating to the United States, Balakerskaia performed in Carnegie Hall and many other places in this country and Canada. It was not until her husband, a member of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, deserted during a tour and remained here that she thought about making a permanent change. Nineteen years ago, she and her son arrived and she has not looked back.
At that time, Mstislav Rostropovich was the conductor of the NSO. She quickly became friends with him and played with him and a number of area musicians with whom she continues to perform today under the umbrella of “Anna & Friends.”
Now a professor of piano at George Mason University and a faculty member at the Levine School of Music, Balakerskaia keeps busy presenting master classes in this country and abroad. Each summer she teaches at international summer music festivals in the Netherlands, Germany and Russia, often taking along some of her GMU students.
“Teaching piano in this country is a bit different than in Russia,” she said. “I taught 15 years in the Moscow Conservatory and before that in the St. Petersburg Conservatory where students begin at a very young age and are on a different level requiring different discipline. I have some wonderful students here and love them all. Some are really serious about careers and work especially hard. We are very close, and after finals in December, we all got together at my house to celebrate.”
Balakerskaia admits that it was not easy coming to this country because she spoke no English when she arrived. However, she spoke the universal language of music and quickly connected with Rostropovich and other fellow Russians. After joining GMU, she began presenting recitals with these friends. As the variety of artists performing in her chamber ensembles expanded, the word spread and now Anna & Friends always draw eager audiences who anticipate a virtuoso event every time.
