Recently, talented accordionist, Maria Telesheva, accepted an invitation to join the “From the Top” Learning and Media Lab Fellowship program. For six weeks she attended Zoom sessions with other highly talented young musicians aged 8-18 years. 

They met many interesting famous musicians, conductors, and other professionally accomplished mentors who performed at Carnegie Hall, were awarded a Grammy, etc. They also learned about the music business, studio recording process, storytelling, stage presence and many other career avenues. Lastly, they celebrated their music and voices with interviews on two radio programs, National Public Radio’s “From the Top” and Seattle Classical King FM. 

Maria had the opportunity to record two selections in a studio; one solo and one with an amazing pianist and NPR host, Peter Dugan who performs with violinists Joshua Bell, Charles Yang, Itzhak Perlman. It was an incredible experience [ both for Maria and her teacher/dad, Sergei Teleshev (renowned accordionist) who accompanied her. The scheduled release for the King FM is in March, and the NPR will be in late summer. 

Recently Maria was selected as a recipient of the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award which includes a $10,000 scholarship. Maria is applying the scholarship towards a new light weight accordion. 

Congratulations, Maria! The accordion community is proud of your accomplishments.