OUR MISSION
Phoenix Chamber Ensemble has been dedicated to making classical music highly accessible to all residents of the New York area, regardless of their financial limitations. The ensemble continuously strives to enrich lives by presenting world-class concerts in an intimate setting, nurturing a vibrant and inclusive community of concertgoers at the Center for Jewish History.
Meet the Founders
Vassa Shevel
Inessa Zaretsky
Vassa Shevel, piano
Born and raised in St. Petersburg, Russia, Vassa Shevel won the Cappella Competition at age eleven performing the Bach Double Concerto and later began her undergraduate education at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory, where she studied with Galina Orlovskaya. Immigrating to the U.S. with her family in 1978, she continued her studies at the New England Conservatory and SUNY Purchase and earned her master’s degree at the Juilliard School, where she was a student of Oxana Yablonskaya. She has studied piano with Jacob Maxin, Russell Sherman, Jerome Loewenthal, Gregory Haimovsky, and Karl Schnabel, and chamber music with Yehudi Wyner Jennifer Langham, Lawrence Lesser, Nancy Cirullo, Paul Doctor, and Robert Levin.
A finalist in the Murray Dranoff International Competition, Ms. Shevel has performed at Alice Tully Hall, Symphony Space, Symphony Hall (Boston), as well as major venues and festivals in Europe. In addition to being artistic director of the Phoenix Chamber Ensemble, she is a member of the Philadelphia Piano Duo with Claire Belkovsky, and also maintains an active private teaching practice. Ms. Shevel is the Artistic Co-Director of the Phoenix Chamber Music Series in New York and Co-Artistic Director of the recently relaunched Incontri di Canna Festival in Calabria, Italy.
Inessa Zaretsky, piano
Inessa Zaretsky, winner of Mannes Concerto Competition, Frina Auerbach International Piano Competition, Moscow Conservatory College Contemporary Music Competition, Gnesin School Concerto Competition, and Moscow Young Artists Piano Competition, has received scholarships from Mannes College, Yale, and the Exxon Corporation. Born in Russia, Ms. Zaretsky studied with Richard Goode at the Mannes College of Music in New York. She studied chamber music with Felix Galimir, Julius Levine, and Claude Frank, and composition with Robert Cuckson.
As a pianist, her performances have been broadcast on WQXR, WNYC, and WNPR. Ms. Zaretsky performs extensively across the United States and around the world, including a special Millennium Concert in Havana, Cuba. As a chamber musician, she collaborated with the Miro, Cavani, Cassat, Phedrus, Parker, and Claring String Quartets. Known for her interpretation of Scriabin, she has recorded many of this composer's works.
As a composer, Ms. Zaretsky's music has been performed by many notable musicians, such as the Miro, Clarin, Phedrus and Cassat String Quartets, Paganini Duo, Kent/Blossom Festival Orchestra, Antara Chamber Orchestra, Lincoln Center Chamber Music II, Chamber Music Series of the St Luke's Orchestra, members of the Boston, Chicago, City Opera, Orpheus Orchestras, members of the Metropolitan Opera, and many others. "Fireoptics," a CD of her music for viola, was released in 2005. Several commissions premiered over the last couple of seasons including a trio for voice, violin, and piano at Weill Hall and a Russian Song cycle on the poetry of Robert Rozhdestvensky in Princeton and New York. Her Piano and Wind Quintet was performed at the Swannanoa Chamber Music Festival. A one-act operetta commissioned as an opener for a rock group "Drozdy" premiered in December 2009 at Symphony Space. Ms. Zaretsky has received the ASCAP Annual Composition Awards for 1999 through 2004. She is the recipient of the "Commission: USA - 2000" grant from the Meet the Composer Foundation and was chosen as one of the composers for the Vocal Essence "Essentially Choral" Readings in 2006.
Ms. Zaretsky is on the piano faculty at the Mannes College of Music in New York. She is the Artistic Director at the Chamber Music Society of the Carolinas and the Artistic Co-Director of the Phoenix Chamber Music Series in New York.
Upcoming Artists
Anna Elashvili, violin
Violinist, Anna Elashvili, hailed as "riveting" by the New York Times has appeared as a soloist, chamber musician, and concertmaster around the world. She has collaborated with renowned artists such as Lynn Harrell, Dawn Upshaw, Daniel Hope, and Maxim Vengerov. Alex Ross in The New Yorker, wrote "Anna Elashvili all but transformed the early, nondescript [Britten] Suite for Violin and Piano, maintaining ferocious accuracy far into the upper register”.
In 2006 Ms. Elashvili was nominated to be a fellow with Ensemble ACJW, a collaborative program of Carnegie Hall and The Juilliard School. From the alumni of ACJW, Decoda was born and appointed first Ensemble-in-Residence of Carnegie Hall. Anna has been a core member since its start. She has also performed with the East Coast Chamber Orchestra, NOVUS NY, Exponential Ensemble and was the first violinist of the Bryant Park Quartet, a group for which she wrote arrangements and recorded an album. She has participated in university residencies including Princeton, Vassar, Skidmore, SUNY, Lawrence, and Cornell. Her international travels have included concerts in England, Mexico, Germany, Canada, Israel, Iceland, and Abu Dhabi.
Having studied dance for several years, Anna really enjoys her collaborations with the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, Wendy Whelan, the Mark Morris Dance Group, and others. She has also integrated her love of tango into her performances, by arranging and writing her own tangos. Some crossover collaborations include artists Natalie Merchant, Becca Stevens, and Anthony and the Johnsons.Anna currently teaches at the Special Music School High School. A native of Baltimore, she studied with Klara Berkovich and Violaine Melançon at the Peabody Preparatory and Baltimore School for the Arts. Anna received her Bachelor's and Master's Degrees from The Juilliard School under the instruction of Prof. Joel Smirnoff and Masao Kawasaki. She has attended Yellow Barn, Perlman Music Program, Tanglewood, and the Verbier Music Festivals.
Joshua Halpern, cello
Joshua Halpern has appeared on stages around the world as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral principal cellist. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with artists including Jonathan Biss, Gary Hoffman, Kim Kashkashian, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Anthony McGill, and Itzhak Perlman, and appeared at music festivals including the Ravinia Steans Institute, Music@Menlo, the Perlman Chamber Music Workshop, La Jolla Summerfest, and KrzyzowaMusic. In 2022, he co-founded the Emil Trio with violinist Nathan Meltzer and pianist Yannick Rafalimanana, and they have since appeared together in concert in Europe and the United States. He has worked personally with composers such as Richard Danielpour, Kevin Puts, and Kaija Saariaho. In 2023, he appeared numerous times as guest principal cello with the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, as well as guest with the Varian Fry Quartet.
Josh is the founder and artistic director of the Cultural Caravan, a Colorado- based organization operating at the intersection of small businesses, social-service nonprofits, municipal organizations, and local artists. The Cultural Caravan has since presented over 85 artists with backgrounds ranging from Zimbabwean Afropop to Venezuelan jazz, Hindustani to Classical Music in coordination with over 60 local businesses and community organizations.
Josh completed his Artist Diploma at The Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, where he studied with Carter Brey and Peter Wiley. As an undergraduate at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, he studied with Desmond Hoebig. From 2021 until 2023, he was a member of the Karajan Akademie of the Berliner Philharmoniker, in which he played as a member of the Berliner Philharmoniker and was mentored by Ludwig Quandt. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. Josh performs on a cello by Domenico Busan, c. 1750, previously owned by his teacher Desmond Hoebig. This cello is provided to Josh on a generous life-long loan from a member of the Stretton Society.
Phoenix Chamber Ensemble 2023 ©