Baritone Simon Barrad and Ukrainian-born pianist Kseniia Polstiankina Barrad partner to explore the collaborative relationship between pianist and vocalist in a powerful program featuring works by Robert Owens, Abel Meeropol, Dmitri Shostakovich and more.

Program

Robert Owens: Genius Child
Abel Meeropol (arr. Simon Barrad): Strange Fruit
J. Rosamond Johnson: Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing
Tom Cipullo: Frederick Douglass
Dmitri Shostakovich: Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti, op. 145

New This Year: Digital Programs!

Shenandoah Conservatory is launching digital programs for the 2021/22 season! We’re always looking for ways to improve your audience experience and provide more ways to connect with our students, faculty and guest artists from around the world. The digital program is best viewed on your mobile or tablet device.

View Digital Program

Meet the Artists

Simon Barrad, baritone

The versatility of Grammy-nominated baritone Simon Barrad has been heard in genre-bending concerts across the United States and Europe. His talent for unique and innovative programming and arranging — melding new and old, jazz and drama, classical technique and heartfelt folk idioms — has led to recent features in the United States at the Art of the Piano Festival, the Ravinia Festival, Stanford Live, the Marlboro Music Festival and Opera San Jose. His upcoming performance highlights include recital debuts at Wigmore Hall in London, Camerata Musica in Cambridge and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. The 2015/16 Fulbright scholar to Finland has headlined several concerts across the Atlantic including performances at Helsinki’s Musiikkitalo, Finland’s National Opera House and the Berlin Philharmonie. Through his performing and as a mentor last year for ArtSmart, which provides free music and singing lessons to teenagers in underserved communities, Simon strives to build a more equitable world of empathy and understanding through music.

Simon Barrad is a native of Long Beach, California, and holds a Master of Music from the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music and a Bachelor of Music in Voice with a French minor from the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at California State University, Long Beach.

Kseniia Polstiankina Barrad, piano

Ukraine-born Kseniia Polstiankina Barrad is a pianist and collaborator with a flourishing career on both sides of the Atlantic. Before deciding to pursue a career as a collaborative pianist, she won top prizes at international piano and chamber music competitions, including the International Competition for Young Pianists (Belgrade, Serbia), the Sergei Taneyev International Chamber Ensemble Competition (Kaluga, Russia), first prize with the LaGrange Symphony Orchestra Competition and national finalist two times in the MTNA Young Artist Competition, winning 3rd prize in 2011.

As a collaborative pianist, Kseniia has worked with opera and vocal music organizations across the U.S, including West Edge Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Long Beach Opera, Cincinnati Song Initiative, and Queen City Opera. This past summer Kseniia was a rehearsal pianist, onstage pianist and Russian diction coach for “The Queen of Spades” at Des Moines Metro Opera and she held a staff pianist position at Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute.

Kseniia is a graduate of the prestigious Merola Opera Program and the Adler Fellowship at San Francisco Opera, where she has been a part of the music staff for productions of Carmen, Manon Lescaut, and Fidelio. She graduated with her master’s degree in Collaborative Piano from the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati where she also completed her DMA in Piano Performance studying with Awadagin Pratt.