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Stanly County Concert Association presents Paul and Sophia: 2 Pianos, 4 Hands, 2 Hearts
February 3 @ 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Paul Chandley is from the mountains of east Tennessee and western North Carolina. A child prodigy, he could read music notes before he could read words. Sophia Pavlenko, born in Siberia and raised in Kiev, Ukraine, was also a child prodigy who wrote her first composition at age 5. Consummate solo performers, they met when the Kiev Symphony and Chorus lost one of its U.S. venues and substituted a performance in the small North Carolina town where Paul was director of the Trinity Music Academy. It was love at first sight. Sophia spoke little English, Paul spoke no Russian, but according to Sophia, “When we met, we connected on a musical/emotional level.” “Music crosses all cultural boundaries,” explains Paul, “and speaks directly to the heart. Playing with Sophia the first time was the most fun I’ve ever had.”
After a year’s international courtship, they married and their future as a piano duo was sealed. Paul and Sophia have been delighting audiences for the past 18 years with their own arrangements from Classical Favorites to Ragtime, along with Sophia’s dynamic original compositions. The sounds that floats from their two pianos have been called “virtuosic, beautiful, very approachable, very listenable.” Their enthusiasm radiates across the footlights to the audience.
The couple launched The Paul and Sophia Music Foundation in February 2017, to support, educate and nurture a new generation of musicians.
This is the fourth of five concerts of the 2023-2024 Stanly County Concert Association’s concert season. The last concert in series is:
March 23, 2024 @ 7:30 pm – The Extraordinaires
All concerts are held at the Stanly County Agri-Civic Center, 26032 Newt Rd, Albemarle, NC 28001.
For season membership or single ticket information, please visit the website of the Stanly County Concert Association.
