The Haywood County Arts Council is proud to announce Russian pianist, Margarita Shevchenko in concert on Friday, August 10, 2012 @ 7:30pm at the Performing Arts Center, 250 Pigeon Street, Waynesville, NC 28786. The concert is sponsored in part by WCQS Radio (88.1FM), New Meridian Technologies, John Highsmith, DDS and Sandra Hayes, and The Windover Inn. Ms. Shevchenko will be a guest on WCQS Radio with host Dick Kowal on Friday, August 10 at 2pm. Concert tickets are $20 per person with a limited number of FREE student tickets available. A reception follows the concert.

The evening’s program will include: Two Scarlatti Sonatas, Handel’s “Chaconne in G-major”; Tchaikovsky’s  “Dumka op. 59”; “Sonata #2, op.19”, and “Valse op.38 in A flat major” by Scriabin; and, the Chopin Barcarolle op. 60 and Sonata #3, in b minor, op. 58.

Pianist Margarita Shevchenko is a musician of uncommon sensitivity and refinement, one of the leading young pianists on the international concert platform today. Of a recent performance, The New York Times wrote, "...the delicacy of her scurrying pianissimo passage work was exemplary...." Cleveland's music critic Donald Rosenberg called her "a musician to cherish." She has won the hearts of audiences, critics and competition judges all over the world.

Ms. Shevchenko has toured extensively, giving recital and concerto performances in the United States, Canada, throughout 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, as well as the Polish National Philharmonic, Polish Radio Television Orchestra, the Ohio Chamber Orchestra, New Arts Symphony Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, and the Hamamatsu Symphony Orchestra Japan, among others.

Ms. Shevchenko has been the featured artist at Cleveland’s Severance Hall, and appeared in concerts and recital across the United States. Ms. Shevchenko has given solo recitals to critical acclaim 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; Big Hall of Moscow Conservatory; Yamaha Hall, Tokyo, Japan; Minsk Philharmony; Jack Singer Concert Hall, Calgary; National Philharmony, Warsaw; Philharmony Brazilia; Cape Town Philharmony; 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. Ms. Shevchenko has performed for concert series’ in Atlanta, Minnesota, Sanibel, Florida and San Juan, Puerto Rico. She also has been the featured artist at the Cleveland Museum of Art, The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, and the Chopin Society in Hannover, Germany.

Her performances have been broadcast in Germany, Denmark, England, Russia, Poland and the USA. In 2000 she recorded a solo recital for NHK Television (Japan) in New York City's Steinway Hall. Her four CD's include a collection of Schubert works (Master Musicians, England, Cleveland Competition Winner's Recital, Live from Chopin Competition in Warsaw and Chopin Recital. The CD's were reviewed by John Bell Young, pianist and music critic of the American Record Guide, as "recordings that stand out as object lessons in musical intelligence and decorum."

Margarita Shevchenko has won top prizes at major international piano competitions including the Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw; Leeds International Piano Competition, England; Hamamatsu International Piano Competition (Outstanding Merit Prize) Japan; Goettingen International Piano Competition, Germany; UNISA International Piano Competition, Pretoria, South Africa, Cleveland International Piano Competition, USA; and the Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition, Israel. In addition, she has received 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 started to play the piano at the age of five and made her debut with a symphony orchestra at the age of 12. 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 in Ohio.

For more information about Ms. Shevchenko’s concert in Waynesville, as well as other programs or events, visit the Haywood County Arts Council website at www.haywoodarts.org or at facebook.com/haywoodarts. The mission of the Haywood County Arts Council is to build partnerships that promote art and artists, explore new cultural opportunities, and preserve mountain artistic heritage. This project was supported by the N.C. Arts Council, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources.