We would like to cordially invite you to a very special chamber music concert at Gradus Recital Hall. The concert will feature violinist David Chernyavsky and cellist Vicky Wang, as well as pianist Irina Behrendt, violist Nadezda Skokova, and Shkolnikova Academy 2025 Concerto competition winner, violinist Dustin Breshears!
Enjoy an evening of inspiring music in a beautiful setting while making a meaningful difference in the lives of young musicians. Your presence and support will help us provide transformative opportunities for the next generation of artists. All proceeds from the concert will go to the Shkolnikova Academy scholarship fund.
Additionally, we will have an art sale!! 20% of all sales will go to the scholarship fund!
The program will include:
Bach: Solo Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major (BWV 1007) ---Prelude
Glière: 8 Pieces for violin and cello, Op.39
Spohr: Duo for Two Violins in D major, Op. 67, No. 2
Paganini: Caprice No. 21
Schumann: Piano Quartet in E-Flat Major, Op. 47: III. Andante cantabile
Sarasate: Navarra Op. 33
Piazzolla: Primavera Porteña
Together, we can create a brighter and more compassionate world for all.
We look forward to sharing this special night with you!
To make a tax deductible donation please click here
Dustin Breshears, age 18, is a violinist and violist studying at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Pre-college Division. He studies violin with Nancy Zhou and viola with Jonathan Vinocour. Dustin has soloed with 14 different orchestras since the age of six. He has won numerous solo awards, including winner Parnassus-San Francisco Conservatory of Music Concerto Competition, 1st Place MTAC State VOCE Competition, winner Palo Alto Philharmonic Concerto Movement Competition, 1st Place Bay Philharmonic Young Artist Competition, 1st Place Mary Jane Beck Young Artist Competition (Nova Vista Symphony), 1st place California Youth Symphony Young Artist Competition, 1st place Khuner Young Artist Concerto Competition, 1st Place U.S. International Music Competition, 1st place Livermore-Amador Young Artist Competition, 1st Place U.S. Open Music Competition, 1st Place ASTA-San Francisco Competition, 1st Place ASTA-Sacramento Competition, 1st Place CAPMT-Sacramento Competition, 1st Place DVC-HNU Strings Competition, 1st Place Classical Masters Competition, and 1st Place 2023 Pacific Musical Society & Foundation Competition. Dustin is a recipient of the 2021 Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award.
David Chernyavsky joined the San Francisco Symphony in 2009. Born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, he began violin studies at the age of six and at eleven gave his first solo recital. After winning prizes in competitions in Russia and France, he entered the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. In 1997, Mr. Chernyavsky came to the US to study at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music with the famous Profesor Nelli Shkolnikova and, later, at the Juilliard School. He has recorded several CDs with the Saint Petersburg Quartet and with the Joel Rubin Klezmer Music Ensemble, and he has released a solo CD, Klezmer Violin. He also performs and teaches with the San Francisco Academy Orchestra.
Cellist Vicky Wang is on the faculty of San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Pre-College Division and an assistant professor of cello at University of the Pacific’s Conservatory of Music and serves as the cellist of its faculty piano trio-in-residence, Trio 180. She is the artistic director of C’est Bon Chamber Music Academy in Los Altos, a summer program dedicated to inspire the love of music in young musicians through chamber music. Prior to relocating to California, Dr. Wang served on the faculty of Mannes College of Music and the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College in New York City. Her recent performances and masterclasses include appearances in Chamber Music America Conference, Pacific Music Institute of Hawaii Youth Symphony, Korea’s Busan MARU Music Festival, pianoSonoma Music Festival, and MTAC convention. Dr. Wang’s principal teachers include Eleonore Schoenfeld, Zara Nelsova, Darrett Adkins, Joel Krosnick, and Marcy Rosen. She has participated in music festivals such as the New York String Seminar, Pacific Music Festival (Japan), Verbier Music Festival (Switzerland), Spoleto Music Festival (Italy), and Music Academy of the West (Santa Barbara). Dr. Wang received her Bachelor and Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School and Doctorate of Musical Arts degree from City University of New York.
Irina Behrendt is a Russian born pianist, accompanist, and teacher living and freelancing in the Bay Area since 1998. Irina regularly appears as a soloist with the Russian Chamber Orchestra, as a chamber musician at the Noontime Concert Series, San Francisco chapter of NACUSA recitals, teaches piano privately, works as a pianist/organist at the Community United Methodist Church in Half Moon Bay, and serves on the board of the MTAC San Mateo branch.
She holds degrees in Solo performance, collaborative performance, and pedagogy from Kaliningrad Rachmaninov Music College, Petrozavodsk State Conservatory, New England Conservatory.
Irina is a founder and director of the Musical Odyssey, chamber music concert series for children and families in Half Moon Bay, CA.
Nadezhda Skokova, born in Yekaterinburg, Russia, began her musical education at the age of 7 at the renowned specialized music school of the UMK at the Mussorgsky Ural State Conservatory, studying violin. She later moved to Moscow and continued her education at the prestigious Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory, transitioning to the viola. Her professional career includes performances with the Concert Symphony Orchestra of the Moscow Conservatory and the Richter Kaluga Symphony Orchestra. After graduation, Nadezhda won a competition and became an artist of the Russian National Youth Symphony Orchestra (Moscow Philharmonic). Nadezhda has participated in numerous festivals, master classes, and chamber music performances. She has collaborated with distinguished conductors such as Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Yuri Temirkanov, Paavo Järvi, and Valery Gergiev, as well as world-famous artists like Plácido Domingo, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Pablo Ferrández, Denis Matsuev, Anna Netrebko and so on. Her performances have taken her across Russia, Switzerland, Austria, Turkey, and beyond.
In 2023, she came to the USA to complete a certificate program at Columbus State University to continue her pursuit of musical excellence.