For more than a quarter of a century, Irina Shachneva has enlightened the world as a musician, director, and pedagogue.
An alumna of the Glinka (Gorky) State Conservatory of Nizhnij Novgorod and the Penza Music School, Irina studied with professor E. Garkunov and pedagogue L. Osipova. Upon completing her studies in 1985, she was invited to serve as choirmaster and teacher in the famous children’s choir studio Dubna outside Moscow. Within three years, she organized and led her own choir studio, Rhapsody, based out of the public school No. 6 in the town of Dubna. Within just a year of its founding, Rhapsody earned its first tour, performing a complete concert program in Poland and Bulgaria under Irina’s direction. As a result of the Rhapsody studio’s comprehensive artistic outreach and original curriculum, it was one of the first institutions to earn the status of Municipal Choral Schooland has continued to grow into one of the outer Muscovy region’s most prestigious choral schools.
Upon her arrival in America, Irina Shachneva was immediately recognized and welcomed into the Boston professional music scene. She was invited as a guest conductor at the famed New England Conservatory (NEC) to perform A. Schnittke’s “Requiem” in Jordan Hall, one of the oldest and most prestigious concert halls in America. The concert was given shortly after the composer’s death in 1997. She has since led numerous Festival choirs throughout New England.
Concurrently, Irina continues to work as a music teacher, giving lessons in piano, theory and voice. She also works as an organist, pianist, and conductor in her capacity as Music Director and organist at Mt. Calvary Church in Acton, MA, leading its choir and orchestra in performances of masterpieces by Bach, Fauré, Mozart and other composers, offering a repertoire ranging from the German Renaissance to modern American works. This ensemble performed to acclaim at the International Music Festival in Würzburg, Germany, in 2011.
Irina continues to inspire budding musicians with her volunteer efforts, having led a children’s choir for ten years at the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia’s (ROCOR) local parish school in Boston and as Artistic Director of the Boston Russian Chorus, which, in 14 years, performed more than 30 various concert programs, acquainting the North American east coast with masterpieces of Russian music.
In June, 2010, Irina, along with Boston Russian Chorus manager Olga Melko and ROCOR Eastern American Diocese Music Committee chairwoman Elizabeth Ledkovsky, organized the first International Rachmaninoff Russian Music Festival in Boston. The Festival proved to be one of the highlights of Boston’s cultural life that season, and it’s success led to a prestigious invitation to Russia, where the Festival Choir participated in a weeklong festival in three cities, celebrating the 450th anniversary of one of Russia’s best-known landmarks, the famed St. Basil’s cathedral on Red Square.
Irina’s greatest talent is her unique ability to secure extremely professional results in any situation, on short order, with any choir, no matter the choristers’ individual level of preparation. Goal-oriented, inexhaustibly energetic, original in her musical interpretations, which are imbued with a deep spirituality, and deeply loving of people — these are the elements that define Irina Shachneva’s character, as a person, and as a musician.