À la Russe!

Anastasia Markina, piano.  Emily Cole, violin.  Svetlana Garitselova, cello. 

L to R: Cole, Markina, Garitselova

Brahms, Shostakovich, Piazzolla.

Anastasia Markina
Born and raised in St. Petersburg, Russia, Anastasia Markina started playing piano when she was almost four.   Her first teacher, Tatyana Shrago led her to win her first international piano competition in Marsala, Italy six lyears later.   In 1994, she entered the Rimsky-Korsakov College of Music where she studied for four years in the studio of Mary Guseva, student of Pavel Serebryakov. While there, she won several international piano competitions, including 1st prize at the 1st International Maria Yudina Piano Competition.

After receiving her diploma with honors from the College of Music, she was invited to study in the United States by Victor Rosenbaum, well-known teacher and pianist, and director of the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA. In 1999, she moved to the Dallas-Fort Worth area to continue her education at the University of North Texas in the studio of Prof. Vladimir Viardo (Gold medalist of the 1973 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition).

While studying at UNT, she continued winning competitions in the United States, including 1st prize at the San Angelo Sorantin International Music competition.

In November 2005, she has performed Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the San Angelo Symphony under Hector Guzman. In January 2007, she has performed Ravel Piano Concerto in G with the Phoenix Symphony under Lawrence Golan and in 2008 she has performed Ravel Concerto under the baton of Jules Gail with Jalisco Symphony in Guadalahara, Mexico.

Her other performances include concerts with Eugene Osadchy and Mark Peskanov on the Barge Music Series in NY, NY in 2009, the Vetta Chamber Music Festival in Vancouver in 2010 with Eugene Osadchy and Joan Blackman. Other collaborations include recitals with James Gallway, Joe Alessi, Emmanuel Borok among others. A CD recording with Eugene Osadchy has been released in 2010.

Emily Cole
Emily Cole is graduate student of Emanuel Borok at the University of North Texas, where she serves as a Teaching Fellow in Violin Studies. Originally from Seattle, WA, Ms Cole was a longtime student of former Seattle Symphony concertmaster Ilkka Talvi. She received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin as a student of Brian Lewis.

Ms Cole has held concertmaster and principal positions at the 2005 and 2007 National Orchestral Institute and at the 2006 International Festival-Institute at Round Top. She was the first place winner for violin in the 2003 Washington State Music Educators Competition. In 2004, Ms Cole performed Vivaldi's Violin Concerto no. 12 with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and conductor Gerard Schwarz in a concert honoring longtime SSO patron Rebecca Benaroya. As a recitalist, she appeared on the 2008 Green Recital Series at the Carnegie Cultural Center in Ottawa, Kansas, a performance that was recorded for Kansas Public Television. She has performed in master classes for Glenn Dicterow, Sidney Harth, and Cho-Liang Lin.

Svetlana Garitselova
Svetlana Garitselova was born in Moscow, Russia in 1983. She started playing cello when she was almost six, winning her first competition in Moscow Russia in 1995. In 1998, she entered the Gnessins College of Music, where she studied for four years in the studio of Alexander Bendicky. She spent five years in P. I. Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory, where she started to play in the piano trio. While there, she won the 8th International Maria Yudina Chamber Music Competition and awarded a scholarship by I. K. Arkhipova. She played in the piano trio at the Festival for 140th anniversary of Moscow Conservatory, a memorial concert to World War Two at Elnia, and at the Shostakovich festival in the trio and the quartet. Also, from 2002 till 2005 she spent three summers in Germany, where she played chamber and solo concerts with her father, A. Vorobiev. In 2004, she traveled to Japan with the Chamber orchestra “Gnessinsky’s Virtuoso”, conducted by M. Khohlov, and took part in the numerous solo concerts. Svetlana worked as section cello in the Big Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, conductor Fedoseev, from 2006-2007 and played recitals and concertos throughout Russia, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and France.

In the summer of 2007 she graduated from P.I. Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory and moved to Rochester, NY where she graduated Eastman School of Music in the studio of Professor A. Harris December 2009. Now she is studying in the studio of Professor Osadchy as a Doctor of Musical Arts student in University of North Texas. Her upcoming performances include solo, chamber music and orchestra appearances in the United States and Europe.