SAXTONS RIVER — Pianist Helen von Tiesenhausen will offer a concert at Main Street Arts on Saturday, Nov. 25, at 4 p.m.
Born in Odessa, Russia, von Tiesenhausen left the country in 1943 with her mother, brother, and grandparents due to World War II. Her father, an opera singer, had been taken to a Soviet forced-labor camp.
The family eventually found refuge in Austria, where von Tiesenhausen continued the piano lessons she had begun at age 5 in Russia. She studied with Professor Honingen at The Mozarteum in Salzburg until leaving for America in 1949 at age 13.
Settling into New York, von Tiesenhausen studied piano at Zavadsky Studios in Manhattan and with Dorothy Taubman. She has performed at Steinway, Judson, and Carnegie halls in New York and throughout the Northeast and Midwest.
She holds a bachelor's degree in biology from New York University and has taught in New York and Pennsylvania, including Russian at Cornell University. She lives with her husband and son on a small farm in McDonough, N.Y., where she teaches piano and is involved in music organizations.
Her concert will incorporate music with a reflection back on her childhood in Russia and her lifelong career as a pianist. She will play pieces by J.S. Bach, Brahms, Artur Rubinstein, Rachmaninoff, Chopin, and Aram Katchaturian, and she will be joined by soprano Aljan LaRock Beer for Schubert's Ave Maria.
Coffee, tea, and desserts will be available during the program.