A Night at the Ballet

Second Piano Concerto. Olena has also been a featured guest artist in several international music festivals, including the “Ciudad Jamilena” in 2008 and 2009 and “Málaga Classica” in Spain in 2016. Olena has performed in recitals across the United States, Europe, and South America, including joining a diplomatic mission organized by the Norwegian Embassy in Guatemala in 2016, where she gave a series of masterclasses and charity concerts.

While living in Spain in 2010-2016, Olena was an active performing artist, collaborating with notable violinists Jesus Reina and Anna Margrethe Haugland Nilsen and working as a collaborative pianist at the Ivan Galamian Academy in Málaga. In 2016-2018, Olena proceeded to study with distinguished Spanish pianist Josu de Solaun at Sam Houston State University and soon joined the piano faculty there as an instructor and collaborative pianist. She was also the musical director and pianist for Sam Houston State’s Opera projects “Leonard Bernstein” (2017) and “Hansel and Gretel” (2018).

In the Spring of 2022, Olena, together with the local violist Nina Knight established a duo with the purpose of creating a series of recitals that benefit causes they care about. For their first season, the duo focused on the international refugee crisis, with particular concern for Ukrainian refugees. The program

“No Way Home” featured music by composers who were torn away from their homes and found solace in writing music, including Paul Hindemith, Rebecca Clarke, George Enescu, and Valentyn Silvestrov.

Olena’s recent concert appearances took place at the Hobby Center and the Candlelight Concert Series in Houston, where she performed pieces by Sergei Rachmaninov and Ukrainian composers Valentyn Silvestrov, Mykola Skoryk, and Mykola Lysenko. She is currently completing her Doctoral degree in Piano Performance at the University of Houston under the guidance of Professor Timothy Hester. When not focusing on her musical endeavors, she enjoys traveling, yoga, and spending time with her beloved pug Daria.

Houston Ballet – Artist profiles

George Balanchine, Choreographer, Allegro Brillante

Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, George Balanchine (1904-1983) is regarded as the foremost contemporary choreographer in the world of ballet. He came to the United States in late 1933, at the age of 29, accepting the invitation of the young American arts patron Lincoln Kirstein (1907-1996), whose great passions included the dream of creating a ballet company in America. At Balanchine’s behest, Kirstein was also prepared to support the formation of an American academy of ballet that would eventually rival the longestablished schools of Europe. This was the School of American Ballet, founded in 1934, the first product of the Balanchine-Kirstein collaboration. Several ballet companies directed by the two were created and dissolved in the years that followed, while Balanchine found other outlets for his choreography. Eventually, with a performance on October 11, 1948, the New York City Ballet was born. Balanchine served as its ballet master and principal choreographer from 1948 until his death in 1983. Balanchine’s more than 400 dance works include Serenade (1934), Concerto Barocco (1941), Le Palais de Cristal, later renamed Symphony in C (1947), Orpheus (1948), The Nutcracker (1954), Agon (1957), Symphony in Three Movements (1972), Stravinsky Violin Concerto