Praised for her “warm lyricism and flawless technique” by Le soir (Belgium) and for her “gripping performance of music by Grazyna Bacewicz” by The Washington Post, Polish violinist, Marta Szlubowska is a sought-after soloist, chamber musician, teacher and a concertmaster. Her concerts have taken her to over 15 countries throughout Europe and Americas. Since 2004 she has been the Concertmaster and Soloist of the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra in Jackson, MS.
A winner of numerous awards, fellowships and prizes such as 1st Prizes at the Marbury and Yale Gordon Competitions and the 2nd Prize in the Bryan International String Competition, Ms. Szlubowska has appeared as a soloist with the Rochester Philharmonic, North Carolina Symphony, and many others. She has given numerous performances at Tanglewood, Meadowmount and Colorado Music Festivals. Ms. Szlubowska performed under the baton of Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa at Tanglewood, as well as Alexander Schneider at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Her passion for solo and chamber music led Ms. Szlubowska to work with various ensembles such as Mississippi Fine Arts String Trio, Mississippi Orchestra String Quartet, Inaugural Piano Trio, Tango Rendezvous Ensemble, as well as Marta Szlubowska Ensemble, a vibrant and exciting strings and accordion ensemble that showcases light classical and popular music from around the world. The ensemble has performed at St. Paul Concert Series in Meridian, Arts and Lecture Series at Millsaps College, and many more.
Ms. Szlubowska holds Bachelor’s and Artist Diploma degrees from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University and Master’s Degree in Violin Performance from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Her teachers include Janusz Szok, Charles Libove, Berl Senofsky and Charles Treger.
Critically acclaimed as "a passionate pianist and scholar," Svetlana Belsky is an in-demand recitalist and chamber pianist, noted for her remarkable rapport with audiences and stylistic versatility. She has appeared in Italy, Ukraine, Russia, Poland, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, and throughout the United States. Dr. Belsky has received awards both for her performances in international piano competitions, and for her advocacy of new American music.
Her recordings have been heard on radio stations worldwide. The American Record Guide hails her CD of the solo version of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring (Centaur, 2014) as an “extraordinary performance.” The album is the recipient of a Global Music Award.
While Svetlana’s musical interests range from performing early Baroque masterpieces on harpsichord to premiering new music commissioned by her chamber ensembles, the love of her musical life is the music and the legacy of Ferruccio Busoni. She is the author of Busoni as Pianist (am annotated translation from the Russian, Eastman Studies in Music, 2010), which had been featured on BBC radio in December 2016. Her most recent CD Busoni: The Late Works (Ravello, 2019) is described as "Marrying awe-inducing technical capabilities to an artistic intuition of mind-boggling depth.”
Following emigration from the Soviet Union, Dr. Belsky studied with Emilio Del Rosario in Chicago. She earned her Bachelor of Music summa cum laude and Master's degrees from the Peabody Conservatory of Music, studying with Ann Schein. Later, she earned her Doctorate in Performance at the Manhattan School of Music, working with Nina Svetlanova. As the Coordinator of Piano Studies at the University of Chicago, Dr. Belsky has taught students from four continents, among many other academic responsibilities. Currently she is the Artistic Director of Sheridan Music Studio.