Barbara Fetrow Suhrstedt performed with her husband, Gerhardt Suhrstedt, in colleges, museums and in many of the nation's most prestigious concert series.
SOMERVILLE, MA, August 16, 2019 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present Barbara Fetrow Suhrstedt with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Ms. Suhrstedt celebrates many years' experience in her professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes she has accrued in her field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Having almost 50 years of experience in the industry, Ms. Suhrstedt currently owns a studio, where she has been teaching private lessons since 1975. She excelled as a concert pianist with her husband, Gerhardt Suhrstedt, from 1980 to his passing in 2005. Since her concert career's abrupt end, she worked as an accounting assistant at Gonzalez and Associates in Stoughton, Massachusetts, from 2007 to 2019 in addition to teaching and performing as an accompanist. She began her music career as a piano instructor at the South Shore Conservatory of Music in 1971.
Ms. Suhrstedt began her piano training at age eight with Dorothy Boyle, though it was her father, a high school music director, who was her earliest musical influence. After winning a concerto competition at Ohio University when she was in high school, Ms. Suhrstedt continued her studies at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. After receiving her Bachelor of Music in piano performance from the aforementioned conservatory, she earned a Master of Music from Boston University three years later. During this time she met her late husband and while he was teaching at Tufts University they experienced a happy accident. Their planned two-piano recital was cancelled due to the fact that one of the pianos was sent to be rebuilt. They elected to perform on the remaining instrument and this then began their successful career as one of America's few professional one piano, four hand teams.
A leader in the industry, Ms. Suhrstedt performed with her husband in colleges, museums and in many of the nation's most prestigious concert series, including the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts in Chicago, the Phillips Collection and National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. and the Temple Square Concert Series in Salt Lake City. With a strong passion for arts education in schools, they developed a number of multimedia educational programs. One such program, "Land of the Tsars," led them to develop a program for adult audiences called "Slava: The Glory of the Arts in Tsarist Russia."
Through that program, Ms. Suhrstedt and her husband caught the attention of Irving August, the head of the Framingham, Massachusetts, Sister City organization, FLAME. He invited the pair to visit Russia with his group, where they had the honor of performing in the throne room of Peter the Great's Peterhof Palace. Having grown up during the U.S. involvement in the Cold War, Ms. Suhrstedt never imagined that her career would lead her to such an exciting opportunity.
In 2002, Ms. Suhrstedt was invited to participate as a jury member for the Igor F. Stravinsky Competition for Young Pianists in Lomonosov, Russia, Stravinsky's birthplace. From 2012 to 2016 she continued to perform and to give lectures about Stravinsky's life at the annual Stravinsky Festival there. Since her first visit, she has visited Russia 14 times and continues to give a solo performance of "Slava: The Glory of the Arts in Tsarist Russia." During her piano career, she has produced four CDs, titled "A Four-Hand Feast," "Dances for Duettists," "Elegie," and "Petrushka." Ms. Suhrstedt further contributes to the board of directors for the FLAME Russian sister-city organization and as a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing.
In recognition of outstanding contributions to her profession and the Marquis Who's Who community, Ms. Suhrstedt has been featured on the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement website. Please visit www.ltachievers.com for more information about this honor.
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