U of A alums headline Tucson summer concert series

A trio of international University of Arizona School of Music alumni will take the spotlight in Arizona Friends of Chamber Music's summer concert series on Wednesday, July 17.

Russia-born violinist Evgeniya Belinskaya, Uzbekistan-born cellist Diana Yusupov and violist Tiezheng Shen from China comprise the Rosso Trio.

On Wednesday, they will perform Beethoven’s String Trio No. 1 in E-flat Major before joining Arkansas pianist Norman Boehm for Fauré’s Second Piano Trio in G minor.

This is the first time we will see the Rosso Trio and Boehm, who taught at Hendrix College in Arkansas and has performed in Europe and throughout the U.S. and South Africa. Boehm also is a composer, arranger and sometime conductor, according to press materials.

Belinskaya, a mother of two who stayed in Tucson after earning her graduate degree from the UA, started playing violin at age 6, competing in a number of young artist competitions in Serbia and the Far East. At 8, she won the Grand Prix competition and went on to study at the Novosibirsk State Music Academia before continuing her college career in Vienna.

She has been in the U.S. since the mid-2000s.

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Cellist Yusupov also got an early start on her instrument; she was 8. Her family relocated to Australia and she was accepted into the advanced performers program at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music when she was 15. She moved to Arizona in 2016 to earn her master’s and doctorate degrees at the UA under Theodore Buchholz. She now lives in Phoenix, where she is orchestra director at BASIS Chandler.

In addition to music degrees, Yusupov has a master’s degree in law from George Mason University and plans to take the Arizona bar exam.

Shen, who earned master’s and doctoral degrees from the UA in 2022, has performed as a viola soloist across Europe, Asia and North America, including solo debuts at Carnegie Hall and Wiener Saal Mozarteum in Salzburg. He has been a guest artist at a number of international universities including the Conservatorio Nacional de Música in Mexico City and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

He is the founder and director of Mexico City’s ViolaVoice International Viola Festival, one of the largest international viola festivals in Central America, and teaches at the University of Central Arkansas.

Wednesday’s recital starts at 7 p.m. at Rincon Congregational U.C.C., 122 N. Craycroft Road, off East Broadway. Admission is $45 for adults, $12 for students at the door. Details at arizonachambermusic.org.