Under The Beams: The Shelest Plano Duo

Four Hands, One Great Love 

Praised for their “stirring performances of rare repertory” (Fanfare Magazine), the Shelest Piano Duo is a husband-and-wife team of ANNA AND DMITRI SHELEST who trace their roots to the music school in Ukraine. At their official Carnegie Hall debut in February 2018, their CD release of Ukrainian Rhapsody brought the renewed attention to the music of their homeland. The Duo, who met as classmates in middle school, began performing together after their marriage in the U.S. Their inventive programs have 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.”

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.

While at NKU, Mr. Shelest won top prizes in various international piano competitions and participated in music festivals. After graduating in 2005, he pursued a post- baccalaureate degree in entrepreneurship. Since relocating with his family to New York, he has been active as a chamber musician in addition to managing a record label and a piano retail showroom.

Hailed by The New York Times as a pianist of “a fiery sensibility and warm touch,” Anna Shelest is an international award-winning musician who has thrilled audiences throughout the world. Anna, a champion of esoteric repertoire, is currently collaborating with the legendary conductor Neeme Järvi on a project of recording the complete works for piano and orchestra by Anton Rubinstein.

Anna made her orchestral debut at the age of 12 years old with the Kharkiv Symphony Orchestra, playing Rachmaninoff’s “Piano Concerto No. 1.” Since then, she has been a soloist with world-class orchestras such as Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra and Estonian National Symphony Orchestra among others.

As a soloist, she has appeared at Alice Tully Hall and Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall in New York City, The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, Wiener Konzerthaus in Vienna and Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City.

Born in Ukraine, Mrs. 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.

Today, Anna and Dmitri Shelest make their home in New York City with their two sons, Ivan and Alexey.

Meet the Musicians…

Anna Shelest

The distinguished career of Anna Shelest includes a performance at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris when she was only eleven years old, and her orchestral debut with the Kharkiv Symphony Orchestra the following year in a performance of Rachmaninoff’s First Piano Concerto. Hailed as the “female reincarnation of Liszt” and “a piano lioness,” she has since performed throughout the world as both a soloist and chamber musician, including appearances with the Cincinnati, Montreal, and Netherlands Symphony Orchestras, as well as the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. Her recent performances include debuts at Alice Tully Hall and Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall in New York City. A native of Ukraine, Ms. Shelest began her piano studies at the Kharkiv Special Music School for Gifted Children and continued her studies in the United States at Northern Kentucky University and The Juilliard School. She has released multiple albums including Etudes-tableaux op. 39 and Moments Musicaux op. 16 by Rachmaninoff, Beyond Oblivion, and her newest release featuring Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition as well as works by Tchaikovsky and Glinka. She has received top prizes and awards in numerous international piano competitions including: Louisiana International Piano Competition; Bradshaw-Buono International Piano Competition, New York; Jefferson Symphony Young Artists Competition, Denver, Colorado; International Piano Competition for Young Musicians, Enschede, The Netherlands; Corpus Christi International Competition for Piano and Strings; Washington International Piano Competition; and others.

Dmitri Shelest

Dmitri Shelest began studying piano at the age of six in Ukraine and soon enrolled in the Kharkiv Special Music School, where he succeeded at his first contest at 11 years old. Playing piano brought him to the U.S. after he was offered a full scholarship to Northern Kentucky University (NKU) as a Bachelor’s Degree candidate in Piano Performance. While at NKU, Shelest won top prizes in various international piano competitions and participated in music festivals. Since relocating with his family to New York, he has been active as a chamber musician in addition to managing a record label and a piano retail showroom.

Four Hands: Piano Duet Pair Anna and Dmitri Shelest

Anna Shelest and her husband Dmitri Shelest are role models for adults learning piano duets. The couple offers tips on playing together as a four hands duo.

by Nancy M. Williams, Founding Editor | Nov 18, 2013

An excerpt of Anna and Dmitri Shelest of the Shelest Piano Duo playing Ravel’s La Valse for piano four hands.

The piano duet pair Anna Shelest and Dmitri Shelest first met at the Kharkiv Special Music School in Ukraine when they were 12 years old. They fell in love later, after they both had moved to the United States and found themselves as two fellow Ukrainian pianists making a new life in a different country. Recently, this husband and wife team extended their partnership to the piano, where they perform classical piano duets for four hands, one piano. Earlier this year at the ABC Gala at Carnegie Hall, they debuted Ravel’s La Valse, their interpretation electrifying and suspenseful.

In this exclusive interview for GRAND PIANO PASSION™, Anna Shelest and Dmitri Shelest share their experiences with piano duets for adult piano students.

So you both moved to the United States in 2000, and then you married seven years later, is that right?

Anna: We actually had two weddings. Legally we got married in March 2007 in the U.S., but since all of our family lives in Ukraine, we also celebrated our wedding in our hometown of Kharhov in July 2007.

How does being married affect your collaboration on piano duets?

Dmitri: I find that being married simplifies our collaboration. If Anna hears that my left hand is uneven, she will tell me to fix it, without having to worry about insulting my self-esteem. When we talk about interpretation, we are not afraid to voice our opinions. If I don’t agree with Anna, I won’t have to go through a long process of praising her idea and then carefully telling her that I might disagree. This seems to save a lot of time and get to the right thing faster.

Anna: In duo playing, you want to bring the strongest aspects of both partners forward as much as possible. Because we grew up together as musicians, we really know each other’s playing, and we have a good understanding of each other’s strengths. Sometimes we go back and forth, testing different interpretations, so at the end it is hard to recall who originated each idea in the first place.

Background on La Valse
by Anna Shelest
This dazzling poème chorégraphique pour orchestre was conceived as a ballet commissioned by the founder of the Ballets Russes, Sergei Diaghilev. However, after first hearing the work in a two-piano version, Diaghilev said that it was a “not a ballet. It is a portrait of ballet”—a comment that effectively ended the relationship between the two. La Valse, written shortly after World War I, has resemblances to the great Strauss waltzes, yet with a clear statement on where the new music is headed, especially with its harmonic developments. It begins with a conception-like vagueness of a waltz and ends with nearly destroying the form.

Does being married affect how you perform together?

Anna: I feel that it is important to leave some room for spontaneity during the performance. The longer we play a certain piece, the more freedom we have to go with the moment without losing each other. I am also not a big fan of talking too much in rehearsal. After you play a few times together, your ears should tell you all you need to know. Being married helps us to work well together, although I feel all duos need to have an element of spontaneity.

And when you perform, you’ve made the decision to play piano duets with one piano, four hands?

Dmitri: Yes. Not many venues have two good pianos on stage, and both of us think, especially Anna, that two pianos might be a little too much. If you add another piano, you won’t necessarily gain more colors, just volume. Noise happens. At first it seems easier to perform on two pianos rather than having to share one keyboard. And it is easier for the composer who arranges the music not to have to worry about how to distribute the middle register of the keyboard for two people. But once you get past some of these inconveniences, it becomes much easier to anticipate what your partner is about to do.

Your playing of the La Valse piece in the video above is wonderful—fiery, intimate. How did you come to select La Valse as a keystone of your repertoire?

Anna: We are interested in pieces that are originally orchestral but work well on the piano too. Most of our repertoire has been arranged for one piano, four hands, by the original composers themselves. In fact, some of the pieces, like the Schubert Fantasy for piano four hands, were originally written for four hands. We grew up playing a lot of big, virtuosic pieces as soloists, so it is something that is very much part of our musical identity. La Valse fits in with our approach.

That’s interesting. How do you address the challenge of creating a full orchestral sound on one piano?

Anna: My philosophy is to approach pieces like La Valse on the piano not as an orchestra reduction but rather as a virtuosic piano showpiece.

A Sampling of Anna and Dmitri Shelest’s Four Hands Repertoire

• Les Preludes, Liszt
• The Moldau from Má vlast, Smetana
• Rhapsody in Blue, Gershwin
• Fantasy in F minor D.940, Schubert
• Symphony No. 6, Third Movement, Tchaikovsky
• 6 Morceaux, Op. 11, Rachmaninoff
• Scherzo from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Mendelssohn

Dmitri: When we were working on La Valse, sometimes I found myself going too far in trying to imitate the sound of an orchestra or a particular instrument. While Anna totally agrees about the orchestral nature of the piece, she cleared up my head by reminding me that this is the piano and some things just won’t sound the same. Trying to imitate an orchestral instrument in a certain passage creates a sound that is pale, but if you take advantage of the properties of the piano, you bring out more color.

That is great advice, applicable also to piano solos arranged from originally orchestral pieces. What other advice do you have for adult piano students interested in playing duets for one piano, four hands?

Anna: My main advice would be to listen a lot before you talk. Think first of what you could have done better before giving your partner any feedback or criticism. It can feel awkward to share a keyboard with someone else, almost as though that person is invading your personal space, so you have to consider that your partner might have the same feelings.

Dmitri: I agree. I think most people at first feel uncomfortable sitting down at the piano and having to consider someone else, be it a violinist, singer or another pianist. And it is an additional workload having to constantly follow and listen to someone else’s part. But as always, with more experience comes more pleasure. Team collaboration is different than solo performing, but in many ways, for me at least, equally satisfying.

In addition to being a concert pianist, Anna Shelest has taught adults in her studio, including some with very advanced repertoire, for close to 15 years. In his day profession at Faust Harrison Pianos in New York City, concert pianist Dmitri Shelest often establishes a rapport with adult students shopping for a piano. He admires their passion for the piano. Learn more about them at annashelest.com.