Dr. Daria Rabotkina

EDUCATION

Born in Kazan, Russia, into a family of musicians, Daria Rabotkina gave her first solo recital at the age of ten. Her education started at the Specialized Music School under the guidance of her parents, and Nora Kazatchkova. Later, it continued in Kazan State Conservatory and Mannes College of Music in New York City under the tutelage of Vladimir Feltsman. In addition, she holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Eastman School of Music where she studied with Natalya Antonova.

PERFORMANCES

Concerto highlights include San Francisco and New World symphonies, Kirov (Mariinsky) Orchestra, Moscow State Symphony, Winnipeg Symphony, Hudson Philharmonic, Charleston Symphony, Harrisburg Symphony, Orquesta Sinfonica de Concepción and Turku Philharmonic Orchestra. Rabotkina has collaborated with Michael Tilson Thomas, Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Feltsman, Julian Kuerti, JoAnn Falletta, Benjamin Shwartz, and Giancarlo Guerrero. As a soloist, she has given recitals at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Kennedy Center,  Weill Recital Hall and Merkin Concert Hall in New York City, Ravinia’s Rising Stars, and Dame Myra Hess in Chicago. Her appearances abroad include Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, France, Mexico and Japan.

COMPETITIONS AND FESTIVALS

Winner of the 2007 Concert Artists Guild International Competition, Rabotkina received top prizes at several international competitions and participated in Russia’s White Nights, Finland’s Kuhmo, and Copenhagen’s Summer festivals. In the United States, Rabotkina has appeared at the Rockport Chamber Music, International Keyboard Institute,  PianoSummer at New Paltz, and San Francisco International Piano festivals.

RECORDINGS

Rabotkina has released CD’s every three years. Her first three recordings were done with CAG Records as part of the Victor Elmaleh Collection. The debut recording features the Tchaikovsky Grand Sonata and Prokofiev’s Ten Pieces from “Romeo and Juliet”. Her second CD contains Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations and Schubert’s Moments Musicaux. Rabotkina’s third project involved live recording of three concerti. The latest CD (MSR Classics) with humoresques by Dvořák, Reger, Rachmaninov and Schumann was released to critical acclaim in 2018.

TEACHING

Rabotkina joined the music faculty at Texas State University as Assistant Professor of Piano in the fall of 2016. Prior to that, she has taught at Eastman School of Music while working on the doctorate degree. Additionally, she presented masterclasses, private lessons and lectures at the Kazan State Conservatory. Also passionate about early piano education, Rabotkina has founded the FunKey Piano Project at Texas State in 2018.

OFFSTAGE

As a full-time working parent, she finds her biggest joy in spending time with her family in New Braunfels, TX. Besides that, Rabotkina enjoys drawing, collecting misspellings of her name, and devouring English murder mysteries.

Dr. Svetlana Belsky

Critically acclaimed as “a passionate pianist and scholar,” Svetlana Belsky is a highly regarded recitalist, chamber pianist, and recording artist, noted for her remarkable rapport with audiences and stylistic versatility.  Her recent CD, Busoni: The Late Works (Ravello, 2019), has received rave reviews from prestigious publications such as Fanfare, American Record Guide, Music Web International the Whole Note Magazine. She became a Steinway Artist in 2021.

A winner of many awards and competitions, Dr. Belsky is the recipient of the 2019 American Prize in Piano Performance and Silver Medals from the 2019 Global Music Awards for her EStrella Piano Duo CD, Tales from the East (2018) and her Stravinsky Rite of Spring CD (2014), which American Record Guide describes as “an extraordinary performance” and “astounding”. Her 2019 release of Myth and Romance CD, featuring works by Polish composers, recorded with distinguished violinist Marta Szlubowska, is already receiving plaudits for outstanding artistry, creativity and virtuoso technique by the duo. Recently, in commemoration of Women’s History Month 2019, Dr. Belsky was awarded the Outstanding Woman Award for Excellence in Music and Theater Arts from the Clerk of Cook County District Court.

Dr. Belsky has toured internationally in the Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Italy, Canada, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, and throughout the United States. Her performance credits include Carnegie Recital Hall, Kiev Philharmonic Hall, Dame Myra Hess Series, Music in the Loft, Chicago’s Cultural Center and Harris Theater, countless university concert series, live recitals on Chicago’s WFMT and New York’s WQXR, and guest appearances with the University of Chicago Symphony, Southern Illinois Symphony, Chicago Chamber Orchestra the Tutti Chamber Orchestra and the Lake County Symphony Orchestra.

Svetlana’s love for a wide variety of music has led her to play early music with original instrument ensembles, and receive awards for her interpretation of new American music. In recent years, she has introduced, in world and local premieres, compositions by no fewer than a dozen living composers. Her latest recording, Lux Internum, features Nocturns by Alan Kryszak and other Polish composers. She also appears regularly as part of the EStrella Piano Duo and Pianissimo!, an all-women four-piano ensemble. Dr. Belsky has recorded for Centaur, Ravello, and Sheridan Music Studio record labels, and has contributed CD Liner Notes for Russian Disc, Consonance and Triton Record labels.

In the 2012-2013 season Svetlana celebrated the centennial of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring with a nod to her Russian roots, with world-wide live and radio broadcast performances of the rarely-heard transcription of the work for solo piano by Vladimir Leyetchkiss. Another passion of Dr. Belsky’s is the music, writings and pedagogical legacy of Ferruccio Busoni. Her Doctoral Thesis (an annotated translation of Busoni as Pianist by the renowned Russian musicologist Grigori Kogan), was published by the University of Rochester Press in January of 2010, to great reviews, and was nominated for the prestigious Claude V. Palisca Award (for Outstanding Translation) by the American Musicological Society. Ms. Belsky’s lecture-recitals have helped to introduce wide audiences to Busoni’s music, and her first CD of Busoni’s Piano Transcriptions (along with her other recordings) has been heard on radio stations around the world. According to a recent review, Belsky “has some claim to call herself Ms. Bach-Busoni”.

–H. Daniel Webster, Philadelphia Inquirer

Koji Attwood, a Kansas native, made his solo debut at the age of ten, and one year later won 2nd prize at the Young Keyboard Artists International Competition.  He earned 2nd prize at both the Stravinsky and Missouri Southern International Keyboard competitions, and was a participant in the International William Kapell Keyboard and the Hamamatsu International Piano competitions.  He received honorable mention at the VII International Web Concert Hall Competition, which entitled him to a performance that will continue to be broadcast on the internet, via the Web Concert Hall Artist Series, over the next seven years.  Koji was also a winner of Astral Artistic Services’ 2003 International Auditions, and was the featured artist on yamahamusicsoft.com’s  “New York City Rising Star” series.

Mr.  Attwood has performed numerous solo recitals across much of the country, including concerts in Steinway Hall, Lincoln Center, and on the Kosciuszko Foundation Concert Series.  He appeared regularly on the “World of the Piano” series at the Julliard School and was frequently heard on a weekly radio show on New York’s WQXR, hosted by David Dubal entitled “Reflections From the Keyboard: the Pianist in Comparative Performance” and currently on Dubal’s new show, “The Piano Matters” on WWFM.

Committed to the performance of contemporary music, Mr. Attwood has given world premiere performances of works by Cynthia Folio, Hector Martinez Morales, and Daniel Ott.  Also active in chamber music, Mr. Attwood has performed with members of the Borromeo, St. Lawrence, Koryo, and Enso quartets, and is a regular collaborator with Mikhail Baryshnikov.  He performed with the dancer’s White Oak Dance Project, and partnered with Mr. Baryshnikov for his 2002-3 solo tour of the United States–providing solo interludes as well as accompaniment for the dances–garnering praise for being a “phenomenal pianist” [Binghamton Press &Sun-Bulletin], ” beautifully nuanced” [Cleveland Plain Dealer], “enchanting”  [Santa Barbara News Press], “wonderful pianist” [Seattle Times], “Koji Attwood…is a pianist of rare
gifts, both as a solo artist and as a collaborator.  Playing solo pieces of Scriabin, Scarlatti, Liszt and Soler, this young pianist was much more than fill.  He is a concert pianist with an impeccable technique, a rich tone, and an assured sense of good interpretive taste” [Nevada-Events], and described by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune: “Koji Attwood percolated rapturously…they (Baryshnikov and Attwood) displayed lovely chemistry in a performance full of virtuosity, and humor,whimsy and seriousness.  Their coordination was so tight that it sometimes seemed as though the dancer’s limbs were attached to the musician’s notes.”;  Mr. Attwood has also performed throughout the United States and in Europe with the Mark Morris Dance Group, Wally Cardona Quartet, and C. Eule Dance.  In May and June 2010 he joined the American Ballet Theatre for eight sold-out all-Chopin performances at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, playing in the company’s critically lauded premiere of the John Neumeier ballet Lady of the Camellias, and was invited back the following year for seven repeat performances.

As an in-demand adjudicator, Dr. Belsky has been on the juries of countless local, national and international competitions, including the George Gershwin International Competition (NY), Taiwan-Asia Piano Open Competition (Taiwan), Chicago Amateur Piano Competition, Konkurs Pianistyczny im. Ludwika Stafanskiego (L. Stefanski International Piano Competition) (Poland), and the Berliner International Competition.  She is also in great demand as a lecturer on the subjects of piano pedagogy, masterclass guest teacher, and has been an invited guest scholar on the BBC Radio, discussing the works of Ferruccio Busoni.

Dr. Belsky's has served as the Director of the Piano Program at the University of Chicago for fifteen years, teaching students from four continents, guiding numerous students to victories in competitions for professionals and amateurs alike.

Born in the former Soviet Union, Svetlana Belsky was trained mostly in the United States. After immigrating to America, Belsky studied with Emilio Del Rosario at the Music Institute of Chicago. She received her Bachelor of Music Summa cum Laude and Master Degrees from the Peabody Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Ann Schein, a student of the legendary Arthur Rubinstein. Later, she earned her Doctorate in Performance at the Manhattan School of Music, while working under Mme. Nina Svetlanova, an heir to the tradition of Heinrich Neuhaus. She has also been privileged to coach with Leon Fleisher, Menahem Pressler, Phil Levin (harpsichord) and other great artists.