Alexander and Buono Foundation

10/15/2026

✨You don’t have to recognize the music to be moved by it.

As a child, Anna Shelest felt that music belonged to a magical world. Her recollection on The Piano Pod 🎙 brings us back to the pleasure of encountering something before we know how to explain it.

In three days, Shelest at the Piano, Michael Hall, Conductor, and the Brandywine Valley Symphony Chamber Orchestra will bring familiar and less familiar works into the same afternoon. Leave room for the piece you didn’t know you were coming to hear.

See what’s on the program:
https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2026/10/18/Shelest-Piano-Duo-with-the-Brandywine-Valley-Symphony-Chamber-Orchestra-Michae-0100PM

Revisit that first sense of musical discovery through Anna’s full conversation with The Piano Pod: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hhPfbBdrSE

Razom for Ukraine C. Bechstein Yukimi Song Barry Alexander Cosmo D Buono Alexander & Buono International 🎹

10/14/2026

🤝 Your part is incomplete until someone else joins you.

At a shared piano, that can mean another person’s hands are occupying the very keys you want to play. Anna Shelest finds humor in it. She also describes the trust it takes to make music together.

After more than 15 years together, Shelest at the Piano brings that partnership to Carnegie Hall in four days, alongside Michael Hall, Conductor and the Brandywine Valley Symphony Chamber Orchestra. Watch the exchanges. Listen for the responses. Part of the performance lives in how they meet one another.

Explore the music that will bring them together:
https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2026/10/18/Shelest-Piano-Duo-with-the-Brandywine-Valley-Symphony-Chamber-Orchestra-Michae-0100PM

For the pleasures and practical realities of sharing a piano, hear Anna’s full conversation with The Piano Pod 🎙: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hhPfbBdrSE

Cosmo D Buono Barry Alexander Alexander & Buono International C. Bechstein Razom for Ukraine Yukimi Song 🎙️🎹

10/14/2026

10/14/2026

🏛️ On a hike in Ukraine, Anna Shelest encountered ancient stone figures standing in the landscape.

That memory helps explain the perspective she brings to Ukrainian music: history is something you can encounter, walk among, and hear carried through song.

Five days before Carnegie Hall, her conversation with The Piano Pod invites us to listen with that longer history in mind. When Shelest at the Piano, Michael Hall, Conductor, and Brandywine Valley Symphony Chamber Orchestra perform the Ukrainian works on Sunday’s program, what might you hear differently?

Explore the Ukrainian composers on Sunday’s program:
https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2026/10/18/Shelest-Piano-Duo-with-the-Brandywine-Valley-Symphony-Chamber-Orchestra-Michae-0100PM

Follow Anna’s memories into a fuller discussion of Ukraine’s distinct cultural heritage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hhPfbBdrSE

C. Bechstein Yukimi Song Alexander & Buono International Barry Alexander Cosmo D Buono

10/12/2026

🇺🇦 A piece of music can travel farther than the people who call it home.

After Anna Shelest shared Ukrainian music online, people back home wrote to tell her what it meant to hear their culture represented elsewhere. A performance had made someone far away feel recognized.

Six days from now, Shelest at the Piano, together with Michael Hall, Conductor and the Brandywine Valley Symphony Chamber Orchestra, will bring those Ukrainian voices to Carnegie Hall.

For those attending, that exchange offers another way into the music.
Whose home, whose memories, might you be hearing?

Explore the Ukrainian voices on the program:
https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2026/10/18/Shelest-Piano-Duo-with-the-Brandywine-Valley-Symphony-Chamber-Orchestra-Michae-0100PM

Hear Anna describe the response that stayed with her in her conversation with The Piano Pod's Yukimi Song🎙️🎹: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hhPfbBdrSE

Alexander & Buono International Cosmo D Buono Barry Alexander C. Bechstein

10/12/2026

🎼Some of the music you’ll hear next Sunday may be unfamiliar. The questions it raises may feel very close.

Remembrance. Solidarity. How we make sense of the world around us. These ideas run through Anna Shelest's conversation with The Piano Pod and offer a starting point for the Ukrainian and American program Shelest at the Piano, Michael Hall, Conductor, and Brandywine Valley Symphony Chamber Orchestra will bring to Carnegie Hall.

Seven days until they open Razom for Ukraine Ukrainian Cultural Festival (razomforukraine.org/ucf2026).

Discover the music behind these questions:
carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2026/10/18/Shelest-Piano-Duo-with-the-Brandywine-Valley-Symphony-Chamber-Orchestra-Michae-0100PM

Hear why this repertoire has become personally important to Anna in her full conversation with The Piano Pod's Yukimi Song:
youtube.com/watch?v=3hhPfbBdrSE

C. Bechstein Alexander & Buono International Barry Alexander Cosmo D Buono

10/10/2026

🎶 Great music becomes something different when artists meet one another onstage.

On October 18, Shelest at the Piano will be joined at Carnegie Hall by the Brandywine Valley Symphony Chamber Orchestra, led by Artistic Director Michael Hall, Conductor: https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2026/10/18/Shelest-Piano-Duo-with-the-Brandywine-Valley-Symphony-Chamber-Orchestra-Michae-0100PM

We’re thrilled to bring these musicians together for an afternoon that celebrates collaboration, artistry, and the power of live performance. We hope you’ll experience that meeting of artists with us at Weill Recital Hall.

Learn more about Brandywine Valley Symphony at bvsymphony.org.

Barry Alexander Cosmo D Buono Alexander & Buono International

10/09/2026

🎹 Some contributions to a performance happen behind the scenes. This one will be heard in every note.

We’re deeply grateful to C. Bechstein for providing the piano Shelest at the Piano will perform on at Carnegie Hall on October 18:
https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2026/10/18/Shelest-Piano-Duo-with-the-Brandywine-Valley-Symphony-Chamber-Orchestra-Michae-0100PM

For an afternoon built around extraordinary musicianship, it feels especially fitting to have an instrument shaped by generations of piano-making craftsmanship at the center of the performance.

Discover more about C. Bechstein at bechstein.com.

Cosmo D Buono Barry Alexander Alexander & Buono International