Elena Yárritu is a graduate of Yale University School of Music where she studied with internationally acclaimed soloist/recording artist Ransom Wilson.
After completing studies in the Master's Program she went on to Paris to study privately with France's premier flutist the late Alain Marion. She also attended San Jose State University where she studied with Isabelle Chapuis-Starr. Other mentors include: Lloyd Gowen (formerly of the San Francisco Symphony), Bart Feller (New Jersey Symphony, Rutgers University). Ms. Yárritu has performed extensively both in the US and abroad as a solo recitalist/chamber musician in New York at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital and Merkin Hall with the ABSOLUTE Chamber Orchestra, The American Church in Paris Concert Series sponsored by the Franco-American Commission, in the Netherlands at Alkmaar's Ruin Church with the Holland Music Sessions and in Tallinn, Estonia at the Winter Gardens Musical Series sponsored by the Estonian Concert Organization.
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Nadia Shpachenko, piano
Shpachenko began studying piano, cello, and composition at the age of five, and at the age of thirteen won recognition as both pianist and composer, performing with the Kharkov Philharmonic Orchestra and placing second in the All-Ukrainian Young Composers Competition. Her piano teacher was Sima Shwartz. At the same time, she was a founding member of the Ukrainian Folk Hebrew Orchestra, where she performed as a cellist. She then emigrated to Israel, where she studied with Professor Victor Derevianko and participated yearly in the Tel-Hai International Summer Piano Festival and in many master classes.
She received a full scholarship to study in Boston at the Longy School of Music with Professor Victor Rosenbaum. She graduated with an Undergraduate Diploma in 1997, having won various competitions and awards and performed with the Longy Chamber Orchestra. At age twenty-five, she is currently completing her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Southern California on a full scholarship, studying with Professor John Perry. Nadia graduated with a Master's Degree from the University of Southern California, where she was presented with a Keyboard Studies Ensemble Award and invited to join the Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society.
Shpachenko has most recently been a top prize winner in the California International Young Artists Piano Competition, Wideman International Piano Competition, Grace Welsh International Piano Competition, USC Piano Concerto Competition, MTNA Collegiate Artist Piano Competition, Culver City - Marina - Westchester Symphony Concerto Competition, Redlands Bowl Young Artists Competition, Léni Fé Bland Foundation Scholarship Competition, and the SouthEast Symphony Concerto Competition, among others. She has participated in the Music Academy of the West, International Holland Music Sessions, Aspen, Sarasota, Manchester, TCU/Cliburn, and Saluzzo International Music Festivals and worked with such musicians as Dmitri Bashkirov, Lazar Berman, Kevin Fitz - Gerald, Lorin Hollander, Gilbert Kalish, Anton Kuerti, Robert Levin, Jerome Lowenthal, Boris Petrushansky, Menahem Pressler, Abbey Simon, Susan Starr, Nina Svetlanova, and Vladimir Viardo.
Shpachenko performs extensively in solo recitals and with orchestras in the United States and Europe. She has been described as "a brilliant pianist on the verge of a wonderful career...spellbinding in sensitivity and mastery of technique" for her performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 and "truly inspiring" for her performance of Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 2. In the summer of 2001 Nadia gave a solo recital at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and toured Italy and Belgium.
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