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Sunday, November 30, 2025
— a “hybrid” event —
Gersh Chervinsky
Gersh Chervinsky, violin
Sasha Beresovsky, piano
“Picturesque Ukraine”
— A Tribute
Join us in the discovery of Ukrainian music. A gallery of melodies and dances captures the diverse characters of Ukrainian life.
Bold and brave like Zaporozhian Cossacks, Lysenko’s Dumka-Shumka is a Rhapsody in 2 sections with a lyrico-dramatic first half and folkish and virtuosic second part ending in a euphoric coda.
The very personal and heartbreaking Lysenko’s love song “A Moment of Despair” brings to mind iconic Murashko’s paintings of “Girl in a Red Hat” and “Tetiana”.
Serious and dark Preludes by Lyatoshynsky are inspired by the stark poetry of Taras Shevchenko. The preludes sound particularly sharp today as Ukraine fights its existential battles against Russia.
Contemplative, nostalgic, and endlessly beautiful, 5 pieces by a contemporary Ukrainian composer, Valentin Silvestrov.
Bright, juicy, ethnic, and charismatic Carpathian Rhapsody by Myroslav Skoryk derives from the folk tunes of Rusyns, Ruthenians, Romanians, Hungarians, and Jews of the Eastern Carpathian Mountains.
Program
Mykola Lysenko (1842-1912)
Rhapsody N2. Op. 18 “Dumka-Shumka”
arr. for violin and piano by M. Sikard. (1877)
Mykola Lysenko
from Personal Album op.40 “ A Moment of Despair” (1901)
Boris Lyatoshynsky (1895-1968)
Three preludes for piano, op. 38 (1942)
I. Andante sostenuto
II. Lento tenebroso
III. Moderato con moto e sempre ben ritmico
Valentin Silvestrov (b. 1937)
5 pieces for violin and piano
from the “ Melodies of the Moments” Cycle I (2004)
I. Elegie
II. Serenade
III. Intermezzo
IV. Barcarole
V. Nocturne
Myroslav Skoryk (1938-2020)
“Carpathian Rhapsody” (1959)
BIOGRAPHY
Gersh Chervinsky is a professional concert violinist and violin teacher based in Rockville, Maryland. He is the second-award winner of the Cremona Festival and Competition (Italy, 2012), and was a participant in the London Purcell School Music Festival (England, 2013), and the Keshet Eilon Festival (Israel, 2019).
Trained at the Moscow Conservatory, Jacobs School of Music, and Peabody Institute of Music, he exhibits the finest traditions of modern and baroque violin playing.
Gersh is an enthusiastic educator with extensive teaching experience. He has taught college students at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music as an associate instructor of violin. He also taught exceptionally gifted pre-college students at the IU Summer String Academy. His students participated in the Heifetz Institute and performed for star violinists Stefan Jackiw and Ray Chen. Gersh teaches at his private studio in Rockville, MD.
Sasha Beresovsky is a pianist local to the Washington Metropolitan area. He regularly appears at The Lyceum in Old Town Alexandria, in 2015 presenting Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations. Sasha is a featured artist of Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic Association. Further performances can be heard in Maine, at the Winter Harbor Music Festival and at the Arts Barn in Surry. In 2018, Sasha, along with a group of friends, organized the Boston Community Studio Class, an analogue of the conservatory model for the community at large. Sasha is a piano faculty member at NUY Steinhard School of Culture, Education and Human Development and also maintains his private piano studio in Rockville.
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