Irina Bendetsky, piano

Born in Moscow, Russia, Irina Bendetsky showed musical promise as a small child and at age four entered professional music school, where her teacher was a student of the famous piano pedagogue Heinrych Neigaus. After completing Gnessin College, she entered Gnessin Conservatory of Music. Ms. Bendetsky has made concert tours through Bulgaria to St. Petersburg and other Russian cities and has appeared with orchestras—in Russia and the United States—in concertos by List, Ravel, Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Bach, and Shostakovich.

Ms. Bendetsky left the Soviet Union in 1989 and moved to San Diego. Since 1990 she has been on the music faculty of the University of San Diego, and she teaches privately. She has been also invited to perform with local orchestras. In 1995 she created the Encore Trio which has been successfully performing throughout San Diego.

In 2006 she started to perform in a duo with violinist Ondrej Lewit and together they performed in many venues in San Diego County and also recorded a CD with compositions of violinist and composer Franz Drdla.

Free concerts at noon every Monday from fall through spring . . . no wonder the Mini-Concerts are the longest-running and one of the most popular classical music series at the library! This series was founded by Glenna Hazleton in 1970 at the Athenaeum, and has been going strong ever since. The concerts feature both local and touring musicians, prize-winning students, university music faculty members, local chamber ensembles. . . and the repertoire also includes jazz, folk and world music. There are no reservations, no tickets . . . just line up at the side door of the Athenaeum before noon. (Donations are always welcome!) Mini-Concerts take place every Monday at noon and last about an hour.

The concerts will be in person at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library. There are no physical tickets for these events. Doors open at 11:50 a.m. Seating is first-come; first-served. These events will be presented in compliance with State of California and County of San Diego health regulations as applicable at the time of each concert.

Masks optional. If you have a fever, cough, or flu-like symptoms, please stay home.