January Creative of the Month

Home > January Creative of the Month

• Tweet
• Email
• Feedback

Anya Grokhovski is a noted chamber music artist. She received her Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctoral degrees in piano performance and pedagogy from the Russian Academy of Music in Moscow, Russia. Her passion for chamber music led her to create Musical Bridges Around the World, a non-profit music presenting organization, now in it’s 14^th year. In the greater San Antonio metro area, Musical Bridges reaches over 12,000 people each year through educational concerts for public school children, a free chamber music series presented at San Fernando Cathedral, a series of classical, folkloric, and jazz concerts presented at San Antonio college, and a series of chamber music fundraising events presented in private homes. 

Photo by Liz Garza Williams

How did you get your start in music?

Both of my parents are professional violinists.  My father played in the Moscow Philharmonic for 44 years and my mother is a famous violin teacher.  When I turned 5, they took me to my first piano teacher and it was the beginning of my 25 year-long music education.  I think they just needed a free pianist in the family!

How does the music community in Moscow differ from Texas, and what excites you most about the San Antonio music community?

Moscow and Russia have a long and rich tradition of great classical music with names like Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev firmly ensconced in the Russian culture.  I trained at the Gnessin Academy prior to the fall of Communism. I received a great musical education and training. However, it was inflexible and a reflection of the city and country at the time, much like the heartache you hear in many of the pieces by great Russian composers. When I arrived in San Antonio, I was overwhelmed by the vibrancy and fluidity of local music. How can you not come to embrace Latino culture and music when living here? Musical Bridges has given me a wonderful opportunity to connect with, and share my wonderful Russian musical heritage. At the same time, I am learning about, sharing, and weaving together concerts celebrating the great musical cultures in San Antonio -- Indian music, jazz, Latin/Puerto Rican as well as classical, through our participation in the citywide Beethoven festival. 

What inspired you to create Musical Bridges Around the World?

San Antonio is a vibrant city with a colorful cultural texture, tremendous interest in music and openness to new ideas and world vision. I wanted to create a performing arts company with the mission of producing one-of-a-kind multicultural performances by the finest classical, jazz and folk musicians from all over the world in order to entertain, educate and develop new audiences. We currently produce 25 concerts a year in San Antonio.

Are there any special events or projects you are looking forward to in the near future?

We are looking forward to a very interesting spring. We are starting 2012 by participating in the citywide Beethoven Festival. Our contribution is three concerts of piano and violin sonatas at the San Fernando Cathedral (Jan 15th & 29th, Feb 5th), a Main Stage Concert, “Beethoven in the Style of Jazz”, at the McAllister Auditorium (Jan 22nd) and a Kids to Concert performance for Carver Academy students (Jan 23rd) as part of our partnership with the Carver Cultural Center.

In May we are bringing the famous folk ensemble Gibaro de Puerto Rico from San Juan with a show about different cultural aspects of dances from the Caribbean. The program is titled “Caribbean Express” and will be performed as a Main Stage Concert at McAllister Auditorium on May 20th, as well as on military bases as a part of our community outreach program, and in 5 San Antonio schools as part of our Kids to Concerts educational concert program.

Personally, I am very excited to make a series of piano solo videos and I am also very excited to share my weekly blog on the San Antonio Current website in the near future.  It is available now on the Musical Bridges website. 

Next season we will celebrate our 15th anniversary and I have a lot of musical surprises for our audiences, which cannot be revealed just yet... 

 Watch Anya perform "Flight of the Bumblebee" : Rimski Korskov / Rachmanioff