Board and Advisors

“Fantastic Viktoria Kurbatskaya was, by all means, the star of the matinee. In the four soprano phrases, she showed all the best features of the art of singing, full voice fascinating sound, with unrestrained and light high notes.” (Aargauer Zeitung, Solothurn, Switzerland)

Eugene Plotkin has been organizing and producing music concerts, festivals, competitions, and other events for over a decade. Mr. Plotkin graduated from New York University’s Stern School of Business with a degree in Finance. Throughout his career, he worked in financial services, management and technology consulting, healthcare, and some of the largest global advertising networks in the industry.

Gregory Sheppard has taught at New York University for 8 years providing private instruction in the area of voice performance and all sections of group voice which was one of the most popular and most recommended courses each semester. He has been at Columbia University in the Music Education department since Fall 2009.

Minsk born mezzo-soprano Oksana Volkova graduated from the Belarusian State Academy of Music, where she studied with prof. Lidia Galushkina. Oksana has won many national and international singing competitions including the first prizes at the XXII International M. Glinka Competition, Antonin Dvorak International Competition, Klaudia Taev International Competition. While still a student at the Academy of Music, Oksana joined the ensemble of the Belarus Bolshoi Opera in 2002.

Larissa Korkina has received her M.M. degree from the Belorussian State Academy of Music where she studied with Valery Minenkov and Grigory Shershevsky. After graduation, Ms. Korkina was invited to teach as a member of the music faculty at the Belorussian State Academy of Music.

Pianist Natalia Tibets enjoys a career as a teacher, soloist, chamber musician and an accompanist. Mrs. Tibets’ career began in her native Ukraine (Severodonetsk College of Music) and later continued in Russia, where she has graduated with honors from the Astrakhan State Conservatory with a Masters degree in Fine Arts.

Since his debut on the storied stage of the Grand Hall of the Saint-Petersburg Philharmonic and till his most recent debut conducting Verdi's "Un Ballo in Maschera" in Teatro Luigi Mancinelli, Orvieto Italy in August 2013, Maestro Evgeny Hochlov has maintained a busy performance schedule as one of the most dynamic young conductors in Russia today.