Music by Bach, Mozart and Beethoven: a Violin Recital

Admission $25 at the door; proceeds to benefit the Menlo School Orchestra travel scholarship fund.

Alexander Barantschik joined the San Francisco Symphony as concertmaster in September 2001, having served as concertmaster of the London Symphony Orchestra and Netherlands Radio Philharmonic. Born in Saint Petersburg in 1953, he attended the Saint Petersburg Conservatory and performed with major Russian orchestras, including the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic, before immigrating in 1979. His awards include first prizes in the International Violin Competition in Sion, Switzerland, and the Russian National Violin Competition. Barantschik has performed as soloist with the San Francisco Symphony in the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, Bach's Concerto No. 3 for Two Violins (with Gil Shaham), Schnittke's Violin Concerto No. 4, Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 3, Brahms's Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, Britten's Double Concerto, Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major, Op. 19 and all the Bach Brandenburg concertos. He has performed throughout Europe with such artists as André Previn, Mstislav Rostropovich, Maxim Vengerov and Yuri Bashmet. Through an arrangement with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Barantschik has the exclusive use for three seasons of the 1742 Guarnerius del Gesù violin once owned by Jascha Heifetz.

Alona Tsoi has made numerous concert tours throughout Europe and United States, and studying and performing at such Music Festivals as Aldeborough and Tanglewood, where her mentors were Benjamin Britten, Alfred Schnittke and Seiji Osawa. Alona Tsoi has been a member of the 1st Violins in the Orquesta de Asturias in Oviedo, Spain (1990-1993), the Netherlands Ballet Orchestra in Amsterdam (1993-1995) and the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra of The Netherlands (1995-2001). Currently a free-lance musician, she takes part in the major recording projects and tours with the San Francisco Symphony.