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Sunday, June 14 2026
Anna Khanina & Luba Poliak
Piano 4-hands
From Vienna With Four Hands
PROGRAM
Mozart
Sonata K 497
Brahms
Valses op. 39
(plus short pieces by Bizet & Grieg)
BIOGRAPHY
Anna Khanina has been praised for her “brilliant technique, musicality, and irreproachable taste.” (Ibbenbuehrener Zeitung).
Ms. Khanina enjoys a successful performing career. She regularly appears as a soloist and with chamber ensembles in Europe, United States, Canada, and Israel. She has performed at such venues as 92 Y Kaufman Hall, Symphony Space, Staller Center for Arts, Trinity Church, Yamaha Piano Salon in New York, Dame Myra Hess Concert Series, Pianoforte Chicago, Ganz Hall at Roosevelt University, DePaul University in Chicago, Georg Phillip Telemann Hall, Muendener Schloss, in Germany. Her concerts were live broadcast on WFMT Chicago (2007, 2011, 2014), The Voice of Music radio from Jerusalem Music Centre (2008), McGrow Young Artists Showcase WQXR New York (2011), and wiox.org (2011). Anna Khanina’s long list of awards include the prizes at Val Tidone International Piano Competition, the Second International Piano Competition in Panama, the Seventh International Competition Ciutat de Carlet, the Grieg Competition in Oslo, the Nueva Acropolis Competition in Madrid, and the Classica Nova Competition in Hannover. Ms. Khanina is a thought after chamber musician and collaborator. She has been invited to Braunschweig Classix Festival, Schleswig-Hollstein Music Festival, Hochschule fuer Musik und Theater Hannover Chamber Music Festival, the Norfolk Festival, Banff Music Centre, and Festival Internacional de Musica Erudita de Piracicaba in Brazil. Despite her busy performing career, Ms. Khanina remains a dedicated teacher. She has been a Teaching Assistant at SUNY Stony Brook and is currently on the faculty of the Piano School at 92nd Street Y as well as Bloomingdale School of Music. Every year her students successfully participate at New York State School Music Association, Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, and the Royal Conservatory of Music examinations.
Anna started her musical education at the age of five, and in 1996 she graduated with honors from the famous Gnessin School of Music in Moscow for gifted children, where she studied with Lidia Grigorjeva. Upon her graduation, she immigrated to Germany, where she began studies with Professor Bernd Goetzke at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover. In 2001 she earned a Master’s degree from the same institution, and subsequently went on to pursue an Artist Diploma in the Soloist-Class in 2001. At the same time, while pursuing her studies at the Hochschule für Musik, Anna simultaneously pursued a second Master’s degree in Performance at the Gnessin Academy of Music, where she graduated with honors in 2004.
In 2007 she completed a Piano Performance Diploma at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, where she studied as a full-scholarship student of Solomon Mikowsky. In 2014, Ms. Khanina graduated from the Doctoral Program at the State University of New York at Stony Brook where she was full-scholarship student of Gilbert Kalish.
Luba Poliak made her professional debut at eleven, performing Mozart with the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra. She has since performed on four continents as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician.
Her concert appearances include the 92nd Street Y and Bargemusic in New York, Jordan Hall in Boston, the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago, the Embassy Series in Washington, D.C., and Dudley Recital Hall in Houston. Broadcasts have aired on WFMT Chicago, ABC Classical FM in Australia, and Kol Hamusica in Israel. Festival engagements include the Aspen Music Festival, Bowdoin International Music Festival, and the Houston Piano Institute.
Born in Novosibirsk, Russia, she began piano at age six and immigrated to Israel as a child. She graduated magna cum laude from the Rubin Academy in Tel Aviv, continued her studies at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles and the Verbier Academy, earned her Master’s degree with honors from the New England Conservatory, and completed her Doctorate at Stony Brook University under Gilbert Kalish.
Her teaching career spans eighteen years on the faculty of the 92nd Street Y, as well as appointments at the University of Houston, Lawrence University, and Bard College Conservatory. She now maintains a private studio in Manhattan, coaches chamber music with the New York Youth Symphony, and teaches at Manhattan School of Music Summer and Adamant Music School. She is also the founder and curator of the Musical Soirée Series — an ongoing concert series for adult pianists.
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