ATG Newsletter Reports: Elena Fainshtein has established the Fainshtein Memorial Accordion Fund at Dallas College in memory of her late husband, Gregory Fainshtein and her student Elijah Clements. Gregory was her accordion partner in the duo Together and arranged numerous pieces for their performances. The Fainshtein Memorial Accordion Fund will provide scholarships to accordion students and eventually enable the College to purchase accordions for student use. To kick off the fundraising, Elena and her trombone partner Lucas Kaspar performed two benefit concerts, one at Dallas College and one at the Kawai Piano Gallery in Plano, Texas, with the donations going to the Fund.
As a new collaboration, Elena will also perform a concert together with Joseph Kuipers, an internationally known cellist, in Fredericksburg, Texas, on June 20, 2025. The program will include pieces by Bach, Dvorak, Piazolla, and Schnittke. Featured pieces will be “Il Bell’Antonio” by Sollima, “Suite Populaire Espangnole” by Manuel de Falla, and “Shenandoah”, an arrangement of a traditional American folk song. In addition, Elena and Joseph will be performing in a unique setting – a cave!! This concert will be on June 7, 2025 at the Cave Without A Name, in Boerne, Texas. (And, yes, that is the name of the cave.) Finally, Elena and Joseph will also be performing at a concert in McKinney, Texas in August. The details on that concert are still being worked out.
Elena and Lucas Kaspar, as TromboKordion Duo, will be performing a recital at the International Trombone Festival, in London, Ontario, Canada, on July 19, 2025. Elena is hard at work perfecting “Feira de Magaio”, composed by Sivuca e Glorinha Gadelha, arranged by Elder Ferreira. This will be an addition to their standard program and is quite special as Elena will be playing with not only Lucas Kaspar but also Lucas Borges, another internationally renowned trombonist.
Elena and Lucas perform benefit concert at Dallas College in memory of her late husband, Gregory Fainshtein and her student Elijah Clements.
For further information: elena.fainshtein@gmail.com
Thank you to the ATG Newsletter for this article.
