The Capitol Duo: The Art of the Cello

Anna Ouspenskaya, piano
Igor Zubkovsky, cello

Join us for an immersive musical experience that places you in the heart of the performance. Taking place in our intimate Studio space, The Sound Studio series brings you up close and personal with emerging classical performing artists.

Capitol Duo, featuring pianist Anna Ouspenskaya and cellist Igor Zubkovsky, has performed together since 2000, sharing a passion for chamber music and for presenting both beloved masterpieces and rarely heard gems of the repertoire. Their performances combine the depth of two internationally trained musicians with the intimacy of a longstanding artistic partnership. They have appeared at the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage, where their performance was broadcast live worldwide, and have released two live concert recordings featuring works by both renowned and lesser-known Romantic and twentieth-century composers.

The duo's forthcoming albums on the Italian CiMA (Cicerone Music & Art) label are scheduled for release later this year. Their repertoire ranges from beloved classics and rediscovered gems to contemporary works and original arrangements by Igor Zubkovsky.

Anna Ouspenskaya is a Russian-born American concert pianist who has performed throughout Europe, North America, Asia, and the Middle East as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. A graduate of the Central Music School of the Moscow Conservatory and the St. Petersburg Conservatory, she made her orchestral debut at the age of eight with the Yaroslavl Philharmonic. Her career has included performances at Carnegie Hall and the John F. Kennedy Center, international competition honors, and collaborations with musicians from many of America's leading orchestras. Before immigrating to the United States, she taught at the Dudelange Conservatory in Luxembourg while performing throughout Europe.

In addition to her performing career, she is an educator, founder of Hunter Mill Music Studio, and creator of several international artistic initiatives, including Liszt in Russia and Virtual Concert Halls.

Igor Zubkovsky is an award-winning cellist whose honors include top prizes at the International Cello Competitions in Minsk, Belarus, and Belgrade, Yugoslavia, the Grand Prix at the Tansman Competition in Łódź, Poland, and chamber music prizes in Trapani, Italy, and Weimar, Germany, with the Brahms Trio (Moscow).

After studies with Natalia Shakhovskaya at the Moscow Conservatory and at the Peabody Conservatory, Zubkovsky has been a member of the Washington National Opera Orchestra and the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra since 2003. He has performed throughout the U.S. and Europe, appearing at venues including Weill Recital Hall and Merkin Hall in New York, the Newport Music Festival, and the Moscow Conservatory, and as a soloist in Beethoven's Triple Concerto, Brahms' Double Concerto, and Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations.

An active chamber musician, Zubkovsky is a founding member of the Lehner Quartet, with whom he has recorded two Modern Classics albums. He is also an arranger and editor, creating original transcriptions for chamber ensembles and premiering new works, including Isaac Mikhnovsky's Cello Sonata.