Music in the Alps
Our Team
Yuliya Fesay, soprano
Born in the picturesque town of Pryluky in the Chernihiv region, she graduated from the L. Revutsky Chernihiv Music College, where she studied the bandura (a traditional Ukrainian musical instrument). In 2006, she graduated from the National Music Academy of Ukraine (Kyiv) in the class of academic vocal performance under Professor E.S. Miroshnichenko, where she earned the qualification of opera and chamber singer.
In 2017, she made her debut on the stage of the Dnipro Opera and Ballet Theater in the role of Aida (G. Verdi’s opera “Aida”). In 2018, she was invited to the "Music in the Alps" festival in Bad Gastein (Austria) and has been performing there with great pleasure for nearly five years.
Svetlana Gorokhovich, piano
Svetlana Gorokhovich is an internationally recognized pianist and recording artist who has appeared in major concert halls in the United States, Germany, Italy, Holland, Japan, the Caribbean, and Iceland. In New York she has appeared in Carnegie Hall, Zankel Hall, and Weill Recital Hall. Ms. Gorokhovich performs with Irena Portenko as a piano duo in the U.S. and Germany, and with cellist Misha Quint with whom she has made numerous recordings, including “Tempo Trapezio” (2014) on the Blue Griffin label, “One Piano Four Hands” (2012) for SMH Records, and “Valse Sentimentale” (2010) for Volshebnik Productions. From 1991-1996 Svetlana collaborated with internationally acclaimed violinist Dmitri Berlinsky, touring worldwide. Their unique recording of Russian chamber music compositions, Souvenir D’un Lieu Cher (Helicon), released in 1997, received enthusiastic reviews. Ms. Gorokhovich is a winner of the International Bartok-Kabalevsky Piano Competition at Radford University (1997) and IBLA International Competition in Italy (1999).
CelloNation (Nargiza Yusupova, Anikò Zeke; Emil Bekir, Hans-Henning Ginzel)
CelloNation invites you to a unique concert experience: a breathtaking rollercoaster ride through all musical styles – from classical and jazz to pop, rock and film music. In their virtuoso arrangements for cello quartet, the four musicians lend each piece a new, captivating dimension: Sometimes quiet and touching, sometimes energetic and explosive. Cellonation doesn’t just play music; they create a unique, phenomenal sound experience. A concert full of surprises, because here the rule is: anything goes, nothing is off limits!
CelloNation lädt zu einem einzigartigen Konzerterlebnis ein: Eine atemberaubende Achterbahnfahrt durch alle Stile – von Klassik über Jazz bis hin zu Pop, Rock und Filmmusik. In ihren virtuosen Bearbeitungen für Cello-Quartett verleihen die vier Musiker:innen jedem Stück eine neue, mitreißende Dimension: Mal leise und berührend, mal energiegeladen und explosiv. Cellonation spielt nicht nur Musik, sie erschaffen ein einmaliges, phänomenales Klangerlebnis. Ein Konzert voller Überraschungen, denn hier gilt: Alles ist erlaubt, nichts ist tabu!
Tammy Hensrud, mezzo-soprano
Tammy Hensrud, hailed by Switzerland’s Opernwelt as “…a remarkably beautiful voice capable of many colors and nuances…a singer who is also a natural actress” has appeared in opera houses throughout Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Japan, Israel, South Africa and the US including the Metropolitan Opera, Vienna State Opera, Stuttgart Opera, Theatre de Chatelet in Paris, Klagenfurt Stadttheater, Salzburg Festival, Cleveland Opera, Opera Orchestra of New York, New York City Opera, and the Spoleto Arts Festival under notable conductors such as James Levine, Herbert von Karajan, Emmanuelle Villaume and others. Her core repertoire includes the great operatic roles of Strauss, Mozart, Rossini, Bellini, Puccini and orchestral works of Mahler, Berlioz and Wagner.
A most versatile artist, Ms. Hensrud has performed contemporary, Musical Theater, Jazz, and Classical and Operatic genres to great acclaim. In demand as an interpreter of Kurt Weill and Cabaret, she has performed one-woman shows at the Lucille Lortel Theater and the Players Club in NYC, the National Concert Hall in Dublin, Ireland and at the Café Sabarsky in the Neue Galerie in NYC. As a proponent of contemporary music, Ms. Hensrud has sung world premieres both in the US and in Europe to include Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space and the Center for Contemporary Opera in NYC. Ms. Hensrud earned her BMus in Cello performance and MMus degree in Vocal Performance from the University of North Dakota. She continued her post-graduate studies on Voice as the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship in Stuttgart, Germany, where she received the Artist Diploma in Opera. Ms. Hensrud has served on the Voice Faculty of Hofstra University since 2005, is currently Visiting Associate Professor of Voice at St. Olaf College in MN, and serves on the Guest Artist Faculty of the Westchester Summer Vocal Institute, Music in the Alps Summer Music Festival in Bad Gastein, Austria, and the Artists International Summer Festival in Kiev, Ukraine. www.tammyhensrud.com
Kateryna Movchan, flute
Kateryna Movchan is an award-winning Ukrainian flutist. She made her solo debut at the age of 12 with the Luhansk Philharmonic under the baton of Austrian conductor Kurt Schmid. At 16, she moved to Kyiv to study at the renowned M.V. Lysenko Kyiv Special Music School, laying the foundation for her international career. Since 2017, she has been studying at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Graz in Austria, initially in the class of Professor Dieter Flury, solo flutist of the Vienna Philharmonic. She completed her Master’s degree with distinction in 2024 in the class of Matthieu Gaucci-Ancelin. During her studies, Kateryna participated in numerous prestigious international competitions, winning awards such as the 2nd Prize at Tampere Flute Competition, 1st prize at the “Music in the Alps” festival in 2018, which led to a concert tour in the USA, including performances at the Carnegie Hall and the Baruch Performing Arts Center in New York. She has also performed in renowned concert halls, including the National Philharmonic of Ukraine, Wiener Musikverein, the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, the Berlin Konzerthaus, and the Harbin Opera House in China.
Artur Medvedev, violin
Jeffrey Palmer, countertenor
Jeffrey Charles Palmer, countertenor, had his vocal debut at the age of nine, singing the Pie Jesu from the Fauré Requiem Mass in his native Virginia. As a critically acclaimed recitalist, he has given concerts in venues across the globe, including the Marmorsaal of Salzburg’s Mirabell Palace (Austria), the Hefei Grand Theatre (China), and the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall (NYC). Known for his ‘particularly attractive timbre with more warmth to the tone than often found with countertenors’ and for singing ‘with great imagination and deep feeling for the words’ (Henry Fogel, Fanfare Magazine), his eclectic taste and flexible musicality have allowed him to be as comfortable singing Purcell and Handel as he is Britten and Björk.
Jeffrey has collaborated with Erickson Beamon on several New York Fashion Week shows, leading him to be hailed as ‘ethereal’ by British journalist and Vogue International Editor-at-Large Hamish Bowles, and has lent his voice to collaborations with several visual artists, including Jennifer Wen Ma. As a collaborative composer, he co-wrote and recorded a track with cellist Danny Bensi featured in the Netflix documentary Amanda Knox and has worked on several arrangements of traditional British and Irish folk songs, which he often performs live. His various theatre credits include the role of Frederick in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance (Theatre Royal Bath, UK), Alex Wakim’s Dust And Ions (Ailey Citigroup Theater, NYC) Lives Of Tiresias (Jefferson Market Playhouse, NYC) and workshops with The Metropolitan Opera Guild (NYC). In 2019 he released a full-length album in collaboration with pianist Riko Higuma entitled Beauty 美 for Blue Griffin Records.
Jeffrey is a frequent performer at the annual Music In The Alps Festival in Austria’s Gastein Valley and serves as the United States Correspondent for the Australian classical and new music magazine CutCommon. He holds a BA in Music from Bath Spa University in the United Kingdom and is based in New York City.
Dr. Irena Portenko, solo and collaborative piano, chamber music
Named to a “select circle” of pianists by The New York Times, Dr. Irena Portenko is a concert pianist, educator, and mentor born in Kyiv, Ukraine. A prodigy who showed musical talent at age three, she made her orchestral debut at eight performing Haydn’s Keyboard Concerto in D Major with the Ukrainian National Orchestra. Her distinguished solo career has taken her to stages around the world, performing under the batons of Grammy-nominated conductors and renowned maestros from the US, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Austria, and South Korea.
Dr. Portenko is equally celebrated as a chamber musician, recording artist, and festival director. Her published recordings — including Chopin Complete Etudes and Tchaikovsky’s and Prokofiev’s piano concertos — have earned wide critical acclaim. She is the founding director of two annual festivals in Austria: Herbst Klassik “Auf den Spuren von Schubert” and Music in the Alps, both of which promote classical music education and cross-cultural dialogue. Since December 2024, she has also performed as a soloist with the contemporary ensemble Reflètes de Silence, which debuted at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall.
A dedicated educator, Dr. Portenko has served on the faculty of Sacred Heart University, The Music Conservatory of Westchester, and the Scarsdale School District in New York. She holds degrees from the Kyiv National Academy of Music and the University of Michigan, where she earned her master’s and doctoral degrees in piano performance. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, she has raised over $200,000 through concerts and fundraising campaigns to support displaced Ukrainian musicians and families fleeing the war.
Danica Skreblin, guitar
Danica Škreblin was born in Zagreb in 2003. She is a student at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz (Kunstuniversität Graz), studying under professors Łukasz Kuropaczewski and Paolo Pegoraro. She began her musical education at the Blagoje Bersa Music School, in the class of Professor Tomislav Vasilj, and throughout her education she achieved numerous outstanding results. She has performed as a soloist at the St. Jerome Chamber Music Festival and as part of the Youngmasters Festival in Samobor, Croatia. She is the recipient of more than 20 awards, among which the most notable are the first prize in 2018 and second prize in 2021 at the Ida Presti International Guitar Competition. She competed twice at the International “Poreč Fest” Competition (2018 and 2019), winning first prize and special awards both times, as well as at the Zagreb Guitar Festival in those same years. In 2019 and 2021, she received the “Professor Balthazar” award from the City of Zagreb. In 2024, she won first prize at the Sarajevo Guitar Festival, second prize at the Guitar Art Festival in Belgrade, and second prize at the international José Tomás competition in Petrer, Spain. She has improved her skills through masterclasses with some of the world’s most renowned guitar pedagogues, including Xhevdet Sahatxhija, Tomislav Vukšić, Krešimir Bedek, Petrit Çeku, Zoran Dukić, Anabel Montesinos, Gabriel Bianco, Łukasz Kuropaczewski, Margarita Escarpa and Ana Vidović.
Korliss Uecker, soprano
The Financial Times (London) acclaimed that "Korliss Uecker, a bright and pretty American soprano, was charming, crystalline of voice and sparkling as an actress." Uecker has sung over 150 performances at the Metropolitan Opera including Susanna in the Marriage of Figaro (international broadcast), Marzelline in Fidelio, Oscar in A Masked Ball, and Valencienne in The Merry Widow. She sang Giannetta in The Elixir of Love with Lucianno Pavarotti and Frasquita in Carmen with Placido Domingo. Other credits include Strasbourg Opera (France), Opera de Monte Carlo, Wexford Festival (Ireland), Santa Fe Opera, Hawaii Opera Theater, Washington Opera Kennedy Center, the Spoleto Festival, Tanglewood Festival and Ravinia Festival, United States Naval Academy and the Library of Congress. She has recorded for Deutsche Grammophone, London Decca, Arabesque Records New World Records and has appeared on CBS Sunday Morning and Live from Lincoln Center. Korliss has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Juilliard and a Bachelor of Science from the University of North Dakota.
Taras Volos, double bass
Taras Volos (also known as Taras Voloshchuk) is a Ukrainian double-bass playerrecognized for his work in international jazz, notably in Gilad Atzmon's European Quartet. He is featured on the 2025 album Praying for More Songs to Come, which includes his original composition and showcases a raw, acoustic, 1960s-style jazz sound.
Taras Volos performs with renowned jazz musicians including Gilad Atzmon (alto saxophone/clarinet), Daniel Bulatkin (piano), and Dušan Černák (drums). Key contributor to the 2025 album Praying for More Songs to Come and the single "Early Blues (I Listen To). Involved in projects blending spiritual jazz, hard bop, and Middle Eastern melodies. Volos's work, particularly his collaborations with Atzmon and Bulatkin, is often characterized by spontaneous, in-the-moment musical interplay.