Theodora is a second-year PhD student in the musicology program at Cornell University and a professional pianist and collaborator. Her interdisciplinary research covers various themes such as Brahms and the history of virtuosity, lateness and Beethoven, affect theory and gender studies. Theodora received a B.A. in Music and English and a minor in German Studies from UC Berkeley, where she completed an honors thesis for each major. She is currently studying piano with Xak Bjerken, and is also interested in continuing her studies of historically informed performance with Malcolm Bilson. Her performance awards include first place in the Pacific Musical Society, American Fine Arts Festival, Young Pianists’ Beethoven and MTAC Concerto competitions, and some of the orchestras she has performed works like Brahms's and Prokofiev's Second concertos with include the UCBSO, Saratoga Symphony, Kostroma Symphony Orchestra and the Lublin Chamber Orchestra.
Semyon Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic's performance of Mahler's “Resurrection” Symphony properly revealed the tensions between intensity and stillness, resistance and fragility.
Michael Tilson Thomas, Sasha Cooke, and choristers from the Pacific Boychoir and San Francisco Chorus come together in a phenomenal performance of Mahler's all-encompassing Third Symphony.
The Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia's second performance of the weekend at Carnegie Hall featured compelling Salvatore Sciarrino and a heavy-footed Mahler 6.
Violinist Veronika Eberle has a successful San Francisco debut with the tricky Schumann concerto while the SF Symphony sounds somewhat limp under Robert Abbado with Busoni's Turandot and Mendelssohn's Scottish.
Gil Shaham and Juraj Valčuha join the San Francisco Symphony for electrifying performances reminding listeners of the true joy of dialogic music-making and the excitement of high-caliber ensemble collaboration.
Yuja Wang’s blazing Shostakovich First Piano Concerto and MTT’s stellar Firebird blended into a cohesive narrative at Davies Hall that showed us how successful performances can coincide with successful programming.
