THE ART OF PIANO DUO

The program encompasses a wide palette of piano duet music, from enchanting examples of four-hand piano compositions written for home chamber performances to the masterworks of the world piano repertoire, such as Fantasia in f minor by Franz Schubert for piano four hands and Rachmaninoff’s Suite No. 1 for two pianos. Dr. Sorokina will share spoken insights into the program.

Now living in New York, Elena Sorokina is credited, along with her late husband and longtime duo partner, Alexander Bakhchiev, with reviving piano duo playing. Beginning in the late 1960s, Sorokina and Bakhchiev established themselves as a leading duo couple, a position they held for more than four decades. In Russia, they were commonly referred to as “Golden Duo.” Dr. Sorokina earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Music History from the Moscow Conservatory and is the author of the book Piano Duet: History of the Genre, published in Russian by “Muzyka”Publishing House. In addition to performances, she presents talks at leading American universities such as Cornell, Yale, and Princeton.

A child prodigy, Vladimir Rumyantsev won first prize at the Glinka competition in Moscow at the age of seven and subsequently won prizes in every piano competition he entered. He has since performed to widespread acclaim at venues across Europe and the U.S. as well as in the Middle East. He graduated from the Moscow Conservatory and later completed Masters and Professional Studies degrees at the Mannes School of Music in New York, where he currently resides.