Featured Young Professionals

Entry #3: Irina Bendetsky was born in Moscow and studied classical piano at the Gnessin Conservatory of Music under Vladimir Tropp. After moving to San Diego in 1990, she has appeared in many orchestras performing concertos and runs her own teaching studio.

Ondrej Lewit was born in Prague and graduated from State Conservatory of Music and at Academy of Performing Arts HAMU (MA). After moving to California in 2002, he was appointed concert master of Baja California Orchestra and violin teacher at the Conservatory of Music in Tijuana. He also has a private violin and viola studio in San Diego.

Please visit Irina's website here: https://irinabendetsky.com/

Entry #2: Anthony Cardella is a Wisconsin native who is now living in Los Angeles. Anthony is pursuing a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance at the USC Thornton School of Music and studies with Dr. Stephen Pierce.

Anthony's performance of Philip Glass's Etude No. 6 is part of his Daily Video Project, which he describes here: "This performance series was designed in order to connect with people around the world through music during this period of social distancing. Each day I will record and share a performance to all of my social media platforms. The pieces will either be works that I am personally inspired by right now, or requests from friends, family, and fans of pieces that they would like to hear me perform. The hope of this series is to inspire creativity and put more positivity into the world by making connections through music. Through the process of taking requests, creating the content, and sharing the music with as many people as possible, I hope to be able to provide an interactive art form to bring comfort and excitement during this uncertain time."