Great Barrington — Close Encounters with Music will present a program of music by Russian composers at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center on Sunday, March 23.
Pianist Michael Chertock will perform Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” and, with cellist Yehuda Hanani, Rachmaninoff’s Sonata in G minor for Cello and Piano.
Baritone Enes Pektaş will sing Moussorgsky’s political parody “Song of the Flea,” as well as the Russian romance song “Ochi Tchernye” and Tchaikovsky’s melancholic “None but the Lonely Heart.”
Pianist and conductor Michael Chertock is known for his mastery of both classical and crossover music. He has performed as a soloist with such orchestras as the Philadelphia Orchestra, l’Orchestre Symphonique du Montreal, the Toronto Symphony, the Dallas Symphony, the Atlanta Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, the Naples Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony, the Chattanooga Symphony, the Utah Symphony, the Oregon Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony, the Louiseville Orchestra, and the Dayton Philharmonic. He has been recognized for his ability to blend classical and film music, performing arrangements of movie scores alongside the standard classical repertoire. His solo albums, such as “Cinematic Piano” and “Hollywood Variations,” showcase his distinctive approach to combining the sound world of classical music with that of film.
In addition to performing as a soloist, Chertock serves as principal keyboardist of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and has been a professor of piano at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM).
Chertock is the artistic director of Cincinnati’s Peanut Butter and Jam Series performing programs for children ages two to five. He also performs benefit concerts for Habitat for Humanity and Cincinnati Respite Care.
For his operatic debut at the Sureyya Opera House in Istanbul, baritone Enes Pektaş sang the role of Argante in Handel’s “Rinaldo.” He has also portrayed Count Almaviva in “Le nozze di Figaro,” Marcello in “La bohème,” and Belcore in “L’elisir d’amore.” Currently based in New York City, Pektaş studied cello and piano in high school, which led him to pursue a bachelor’s degree at the Istanbul University State Conservatory. Early in 2023, Enes made his Carnegie Hall debut, coinciding with the start of his master’s studies at the Mannes School of Music. He has a deep passion for German Lieder, having performed cycles like Schumann’s “Dichterliebe” and Schubert’s “Winterreise” in recitals across Istanbul.
Hear pianist Michael Chertock, cellist Yehuda Hanani, and baritone Enes Pektaş perform a program of Russian music on March 23, 4 p.m., at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, 14 Castle Street, Great Barrington, MA 01201. Following the performance, all audience members are invited to an on-stage reception with canapés from Authentic Eats by Oleg to meet the performers and one another.
Single tickets, $55 (orchestra and mezzanine), $30 (balcony), and $15 for students, are available through the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center or by calling (413) 528-0100.
