Biography
“The New First Lady of Bach” — John Bell Young, The St Petersburg Times
With the release of Marianna Rashkovetsky’s debut album on the Angelok label in 2002, the distinguished critic Jed Distler, in Classics Today, extolled her playing as both eloquent and ravishing, with “imagination and character at every turn.” Likewise, Clavier Magazine singled her out for her “magical” music making, “dramatic temperament,” and “masterful delivery.”
Indeed, since her first appearances in the west a decade ago, Russian born Marianna Rashkovetsky has beguiled critics and audiences for her vivacious and authoritative performances of the music of J.S. Bach and Domenico Scarlatti, evoking enthusiastic comparisons to such celebrated early music interpreters as Glenn Gould and Rosalyn Tureck.
In 2002 she came to the attention of Constantine Orbelian, the distinguished conductor of the Moscow Chamber Orchestra. He was so impressed that he engaged Ms. Rashkovetsky to perform several Bach concerti with that august ensemble for its 2004 American tour. In addition to her solo appearances in concert throughout the U.S. and Europe, Ms. Rashkovetsky also performed frequently in chamber music with the RAMA Trio, which she founded in 1999.
Ms. Rashkovetsky is a musical descendant of Heinrich Neuhaus, a giant of Russian piano pedagogy, who numbered Richter and Gilels among his students. A graduate of the Gnessin Academy of Music, where she studied with Neuhaus protégée, Lina Bulatova, Ms. Rashkovetsky went on to serve on the faculties of the Dunaevsky School of Music and The Allegro Center for Music and Aesthetics, in Moscow. She performed frequently throughout the Eastern bloc, with concerts throughout Russia, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria.
In the historic, but politically uncertain days of 1990, as glasnost and perestroika were transforming the former Soviet Union, Ms. Rashkovetsky was one of a handful of artists the Soviets allowed to emigrate without penalty of the United States. Shortly thereafter, she became an American citizen, settling in Boston. Once there, she cofounded the Russian-American Music Association (RAMA), to cultivate Russian musical traditions and facilitate communication between musicians of both nations through concerts, workshops, and a competition for young people. Winners of the competition performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City and at Gnessin Academy and Moscow Conservatory in Moscow, Russia. In recognition of her, both her talent and her efforts on behalf of young musicians, she was the recipient of two generous grants from private arts organizations in Boston.
Recordings
Ms. Rashkovetsky has recorded for both the Americus and Angelok labels. In addition to Bach and Scarlatti, she is heard in the music of Schubert and Liszt. A privately released recording, available at Amazon.com, features Ms. Rashkovetsky in the music of Grieg, Chopin, and Brahms. She recorded four albums under the Americus label, two recordings of Bach’s French Suites, an album of Chopin’s music, and another with Fantasies by Mozart and Schubert.
European Festivals
In the first decade of the new millennium, she had a whirlwind concert schedule at European Music Festivals. She performed in French Festivals in 2004 at the Festival Musique en Euroregions and Nancyphonies. In Italy she performed in Armonie Sotta la Roca in 2003; in 2008 she performed the World Premiere of French composer Francoise Choveaux, Sonata for Cello and Piano, in Messina, Sicily; in 2008 she performed at the International Music Festival in 2008 in Portofino; and in 2009 she performed in the PianoEchoes in Monferrato. In Belgium in 2004 she played Bach concerti with the Sebestyen String Orchestra with Katalin Sebestyen conducting and in Germany she performed in the Promenade Festival in 2006.
American Concerts
In America she played piano concertos with four different orchestras. When she was on the faculty of India Hill Music, in Littleton, Massachusetts, she was honored to play the Beethoven Triple Concerto with Maestro Bruce Hangen and the Indian Hill Orchestra in 2002. She played three Bach concerti with Constantine Orbelian and the Moscow Chamber Orchestra in 2004 at Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Massachusetts. In May of 2005 she performed Bach with the Ventura Festival Orchestra in California under the baton of Navroj Mehta. And in 2007, at Trinity Church in Manhattan, with the New York Scandia Symphony, she played the famous Grieg Piano Concerto.
In addition to playing piano concertos, she has performed many solo and ensemble pieces in the Boston area and elsewhere. There are many notable examples of her performance career in America, but just to mention a few. She performed often with the RAMA Trio at Longy School of Music at Pickman Hall in Cambridge. For many years she collaborated with Music Bridges Around the World and its director Anna Grahovsky from San Antonio, Texas. In Massachusetts she has performed at the Kaliroscope Gallery in Groton, Temple Israel in Boston, Merrimack College in North Andover, Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Methuen Memorial Hall in Methuen, as well as playing at the Meeting House Festival in New Salem. In Rhode Island she performed the contemporary music of composer Gerald Shapiro at Brown University in Providence.
Marianna taught at Indian Hill Music Center in Littleton, Massachusetts for twenty-six years, retiring in 2018. She also served on the faculty of Interharmony International Music Festival for five years. Today she teaches at her private studio in Acton, Massachusetts.
