|
The Brazilian-born pianist, Sionia Rubinsky, was born of Slavic origin. She lived 13 years in Brazil, 7 in Israel, and most of her adult life in New York city. She gave her first concert at the age of five and a half, and made her first appearance as soloist with orchestra at the age of 12. When she was 16, she and performed for Arthur Rubinstein, who singled her out for her strong musical temperament. She was encouraged to pursue her doctoral studies at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City, and obtained there Doctor of Arts degree. She studied with Vlado Perlemuter, Beveridge Webster, Jacob Lateiner, Olga Normanha and William Daghlian.
Sonia Rubinsky reflects the great tradition of virtuoso performance with constantly acquired new repertoire, including numerous concertos and solo works ranging from the Baroque to the contemporary. She has performed widely in North America, Europe, Israel and throughout South America. In the USA she has appeared as a soloist with such orchestras as the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in New York and with the symphony orchestras of Richmond, Syracuse, Phoenix, and Cheyenne. Rubinsky has performed as recitalist in New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Toronto, Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, Tel-Aviv and Montevideo, and has toured Brazil extensively, appearing with its most notable orchestras including the Orchestra of the Theatro Municipal of Rio de Janeiro and of São Paulo, the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, the Campinas Symphony, and the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo (OSESP).
Sonia Rubinsky was awarded the title of “Best Recitalist of the Year” by the São Paulo Association of Music Critics, she is recipient of the prestigious William Petschek Award and has also won the Artists International Competition in New York in 1984. Rubinsky has recorded the complete piano works of Heitor Villa-Lobos for the Naxos label on 8 volumes. Vol. 1 of the the series was described in Gramophone magazine as one of the five best releases of 1999 and was nominated for a Grammy, while Vol. 5 of the series was chosen as one of the ten best releases of October 2006. She won the Carlos Gomes Prize as Pianist of the Year in 2006, and won a Latin Grammy Award, in 2009, for Best Recording of the Year for Vol. 8 in the H Villa-Lobos. She has also recorded music by John Adams, Debussy, Mozart and others for the Nonesuch/Elektra, Daghlian, Albany Records and Algol Editora labels. |
