Margarita Shevchenko, Piano

Biography

Pianist Margarita Shevchenko has toured throughout the world, giving recital and concerto performances in the United States, Canada, Europe, Brazil, Japan, Russia, Israel and South Africa. Highlights of her many orchestral appearances include performances with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Mendi Rodan and Cape Town Symphony under JoAnn Faletta.

She opened her 2007/2008 season with a ten concert tour in South Africa followed by a tour in the Far East. Other highlights of this season include her debut with the Orquestra Symphonica Braziliera in Rio de Janeiro, and her debut with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven's Choral Fantasie led by Lucas Richman.

Earlier seasons have seen Ms. Shevchenko as featured artist at Cleveland's Severance Hall. She has given solo recitals at New York's Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, and other major halls abroad including Gasteig Performance Center, Munich; Old Opera House, Frankfurt; Salle Cortot, and Chatelet Theater, Paris; Leeds City Hall, U.K; Tchaikovsky Hall, Moscow; the Big Hall of Moscow Conservatory; Yamaha Hall, Tokyo, Japan; Minsk Philharmonie; Jack Singer Concert Hall, Calgary; National Philharmonie Warsaw; Philharmonie Brazilia; Cape Town Philharmonie, South Africa; and Mann Auditorium, Tel-Aviv, Israel.

Ms. Shevchenko has participated in such festivals as the Miami Festival, Strasbourg Festival, France; Chopin & George Sand Festival, La Chartre, France; Palermo Festival, and Rocca Malatestiana Festival, Italy; Marienbad Chopin Festival, Czechoslovakia and the Yokohama Festival, Japan. She has been the featured artist at the Cleveland Museum of Art, The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, and the Chopin Society in Hanover, Germany.

In 2000 she recorded a solo recital for NHK Television (Japan) in New York City's Steinway Hall. Among her four CD recordings are a collection of Schubert works and her performances live from the Chopin Competition in Warsaw. Ms. Shevchenko's top prizes at major international piano competitions have included at the Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw; Leeds International Piano Competition, England; UNISA International Piano Competition, Pretoria, South Africa; Cleveland International Piano Competition, USA; and the Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition, Israel. In addition, she was honored to be the recipient of five Special Chopin Prizes at the competitions in Warsaw, Cleveland, Goettingen, Pretoria and Tel Aviv.

A native of Russia, Ms. Shevchenko resides in the United States. She received her musical training at Moscow Central Music School, Moscow State Conservatory, where she received her Master of Music degree, and at the Cleveland Institute of Music.