LENOX, Mass. — Prima Music Foundation presents the piano duo Anna and Dmitri Shelest and tenor Alexander Dedik at Ventfort Hall on Thursday, August 3 at 4 pm.

 

There will be light hors d'oeuvres and a cash bar offering beer, wine and our new signature cultural cocktail, the Ventfort Vesper, in collaboration with Berkshire Mountain Distillers. The bar will open a half hour prior to the concert.

 

The program will include works for piano duo and art songs by composers from the Gilded Age including works by Gerswhin, Barber, Spross, Respigi, Friml, Lysenko and Skoryk.

 

Tickets are $45 general admission and $40 for Berkshire county residents. Reservations are strongly recommended as seating is limited. Walk-ins accommodated as space allows. For reservations visit https://gildedage.org/events/ or call (413) 637-3206. Note that all tickets are nonrefundable and non-exchangeable. 

 

The historical mansion is located at 104 Walker Street in Lenox.

 

According to a press release:

 

Praised for their "stirring performances of rare repertory," Shelest Piano Duo is a husband-and-wife team who take their roots to the music school in Ukraine. The Duo, who met as classmates in middle school, began performing together after their marriage in the U.S. Their inventive programs brought them to a broad array of venues from concert stages to state functions, and, in words of Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon, "realized diplomacy through music."

 

Born in Ukraine, Anna Shelest received her early music education at Kharkiv Special Music School. After receiving her Bachelor of Music degree at Northern Kentucky University, she graduated from The Juilliard School with a master's degree. 

 

Dmitri Shelest started studying piano at the age of six in Ukraine and soon enrolled into the Kharkiv Special Music School, succeeding at his first contest when he was 11 years old. It was also piano that brought him across to the U.S. after he was offered a full scholarship to Northern Kentucky University as a bachelor's degree candidate in piano performance. 

 

They make their home in New York City with their two sons.

 

After becoming a prize-winner at both Tchaikovsky's and Glinka's International Competitions in 1970, Alexander Dedik was invited to be a leading dramatic tenor at the internationally famous opera house Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Alexander has had bestowed upon him and been given the honored and highest awards for artistic and musical achievement, namely the People's Artist of Russia in 1983 (awarded by then President Mikhail Gorbachev), the People's Artist of Belorussia in 1979, and the Honored Artist of Poland in 1978. Alexander has been a performing duo with his wife Tatiana Dedik who was accompanying him when he won a prize at the Tchaikovsky and Glinka Competitions. They have performed concerts together in over 20 countries throughout Europe, Israel, China, Peru and Scandinavia. Alexander is a Professor of Voice at the Rimsky-Korsakov College at The Saint Petersburg Conservatory.