North Shore Chamber Music Festival | onstage/offstage Series | Concert by Anna Kesselman, piano (AFSF’25) and Fiona Khuong-Huu, violin (AFSF’22)

Anna Kesselman is an 18 year old pianist from New York City. A graduate of the Special Music School at Kaufman Music Center, she has studied with Ms. Natela Mchedlishvili for the last thirteen years. Anna is a Lang Lang Young Scholar, 2025 National YoungArts Winner, and participated in the 2023 Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition and Festival. She has performed with numerous orchestras such as the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony, Midwest Young Artists Symphony Orchestra, and Special Music School String Orchestra, and was a finalist in the 11th Yamaha USASU International Piano Competition, whose jury panel included Martha Argerich. Anna has performed in 13 states across the country and internationally as well as in venues such as Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Hall, and The Kimmel Center’s Verizon Hall. An avid chamber music collaborator, Anna has played chamber works in esteemed halls such as Alice Tully Hall, Rose Studio, and Steinway Hall, and has shared the stage with artists such as Antonio Pompa-Baldi and Peter Dugan. She has performed in masterclasses for many distinguished artists, including Richard Goode, Veda Kaplinsky, Jeremy Denk, and Vladimir Feltsman.

A strong advocate for community outreach and engagement, Anna co-authored the children’s book Who is Florence Price?, published by G. Schirmer, created a website and organization called Keys 4 Community (keys4community.com) that hosts benefit concerts and online fundraising projects through music, founded a student organization at her school called Music For All, which brings live music to hundreds of people at assisted living facilities and rehabilitation centers throughout the city, and served as Co-President of her school’s National Honor Society chapter. In the fall of 2025, Anna will pursue a Bachelor of Arts degree at Columbia University and continue her piano studies under the tutelage of Prof. Veda Kaplinsky.

Born in New York City, violinist Fiona Khuong-Huu currently studies with Professor Ilya Kaler at the Cleveland Institute of Music, previously a student of Professors Itzhak Perlman in the Juilliard Pre-College Division. Fiona made her debut with the New York Philharmonic at 16 in David Geffen Hall, performing the Mendelssohn Concerto under the baton of Maestro Thomas Wilkins for the Centennial Season of the NY Phil Young People’s Concerts, and she frequently performs as a soloist and chamber musician in the United States, Italy, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, London, and more.

She has had the honor of performing for King Charles at the Lancaster House with the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Marios Papadopoulos, with whom she has also performed as soloist in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, the Windsor Castle, and the Buckingham Palace along with Maxim Vengerov. Most recently, she performed Vivaldi’s Four Seasons at the Kulturpalast Dresden with the Moritzburg Festival Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Josep Domenech. Other notable performances as soloist include the Juilliard Orchestra in Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center, the Flanders Symphony Orchestra at the Bozar Concert Hall in Brussels, and with the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra. Fiona was awarded the prestigious Career Grant Award from Salon de Virtuosi in 2021 and performed in several of their concert series, as well as at Festival Napa Valley as one of their Bouchaine Young Artists.

She has performed as guest artist with Andrea Lucchesini and Robert McDuffie at the Rome Chamber Music Festival, with Jan Vogler at the Moritzburg Festival, with Vadim Gluzman at the North Shore Chamber Music Festival, and with Paul Neubauer in the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players concert series. She is fortunate to have received inspiration from world renowned mentors such as Menahem Pressler and Sheryl Staples.

For more information about North Shore Chamber Music Festival, please visit: https://nscmf.org/