“It is such a gift to be able to just sit down and play a piano without having to get used to it - to be able to reproduce without any effort any tone color my ear could desire, and to feel completely in control of every note.”
Svetlana Belsky
Critically acclaimed as “a passionate pianist and scholar,” Steinway Artist Svetlana Belsky is a highly regarded recitalist, chamber pianist, and recording artist, noted for her remarkable rapport with audiences and stylistic versatility. Her recent CD, Busoni: The Late Works (Ravello, 2019), has received rave reviews from prestigious publications such as Fanfare, American Record Guide, Music Web International the Whole Note Magazine. She won the 2019 American Prize in Piano Performance for her recording of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, which American Record Guide described as “an extraordinary performance.” In commemoration of Women’s History Month 2019, Dr. Belsky was awarded the Outstanding Woman Award for Excellence in Music and Theater Arts from the Clerk of Cook County District Court.
Dr. Belsky has toured in Europe, East Asia, Canada, and the United States. Her performance credits include Carnegie Recital Hall, Kiev Philharmonic Hall, Dame Myra Hess Series, live recitals on Chicago’s WFMT and New York’s WQXR, and guest appearances with the University of Chicago Symphony, Southern Illinois Symphony, Chicago Chamber Orchestra the Tutti Chamber Orchestra and the Lake County Symphony Orchestra. Svetlana’s love for a wide variety of musical practices has led her to early music with original instrument ensembles, and to champion and premier the works of American composers.
Belsky is considered an authority on the music, writings and pedagogical legacy of Ferruccio Busoni. Her Doctoral Thesis - an annotated translation of Busoni as Pianist by the Russian musicologist Grigori Kogan, was published by the University of Rochester Press in January 2010, and was nominated for the prestigious Claude V. Palisca Award by the American Musicological Society. According to one reviewer, Belsky “has some claim to call herself Ms. Bach-Busoni.” She has been an invited guest scholar on BBC Radio, discussing the works of Ferruccio Busoni.
Dr. Belsky was the Coordinator of Piano Studies at the University of Chicago for fifteen years, and is in great demand as a lecturer, masterclass guest teacher, and competition adjudicator. She has been on the juries of countless local, national and international competitions, including the George Gershwin International Competition (NY), TaiwanAsia Piano Open Competition (Taiwan), Chicago Amateur Piano Competition, Konkurs Pianistyczny im. Ludwika Stafanskiego (L. Stefanski International Piano Competition) (Poland), and the Berliner International Competition.
She received her formal education from the Peabody Conservatory of Music (B.A. Summa cum Laude and M.M) where she studied with Ann Schein, a student of the legendary Arthur Rubinstein. She earned her Doctorate in Performance at the Manhattan School of Music, while working under Mme. Nina Svetlanova, an heir to the tradition of Heinrich Neuhaus. She has also been privileged to coach with Leon Fleisher, Menahem Pressler, Phil Levin (harpsichord) and other great artists.
Svetlana Belsky is a Steinway Artist