By KARAN MINNIS,Guardian Lifestyles Reporter,karan@nasguard.com

The Nassau Music Society is doing it again, and this time, they're giving you the best of both piano and violin music.

On Friday March 1 and Saturday March 2, Bahamians will be in for a treat as world renowned pianist Igor Raykhelson, who has a background in both classical and jazz, will perform alongside Ekaterina Astashova, who is considered a violinists dream. They will perform two shows, at the Dundas Centre for the Performing Arts, Mackey Street, and St. Paul's Church, Lyford Cay.

Ticket costs for both performances are $10 for students, $25 for members, and $35 for non-society members, and can be purchased at The Dundas Theatre.

Raykhelson, who was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, has been playing for over 30 years. He was admitted to the Leningrad-Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in 1976 where he majored in both Classical and Jazz Piano. In his early career he formed a jazz quartet, The Emerging Stars, who toured extensively throughout the former Soviet Union.

Appealing to audiences all over Russia with their talent and sense of musical style, Raykhelson and his group were able to develop his love for music in a variety of musical art forms. In 1979 he moved to New York City and began his piano studies with the famous Professor Alexander Edelman. He then went on to tour with such jazz greats as Eddie Gomez, Joe Lock and Russia's leading saxophone player, Igor Butman.

Through out this period Raykhelsonr continued his study of classical piano and performed chamber music with orchestras and as a soloist. Raykhelson subsequently met and performed with legendary violist Yuri Bashmet, who is credited as being the world's greatest living viola player.

Raykhelson was inspired by the brilliance of Bashmet's artistry composed several pieces of music for him and subsequently they continue their successful musical collaborations to this day.

Since then Raykhelson continued to combine his love of jazz and classical music through his expressive composition entitled Jazz Suite (2005), performed at Lincoln Center in February of 2006. This performance blended the mastery of Yuri Bashmet, viola and the Moscow Soloist Orchestra along side the famous saxophonist, with Igor Butman leading his Big Band Jazz Orchestra. At this time, Raykhelson was said to have fulfilled his role to perfection as both composer/conductor as well as pianist for the performance.

Other compositions of note include: Viola Sonata (1999), Cello Sonata (2001), Piano Trio (2003), Piano quartet (2004), Piano Sonata (2004), Violin Sonata (2005), Clarinet Concerto (2005), Viola Concerto (2005), and Small Symphony for Strings (2005).

Raykhelson also performs regularly at major festivals in Russia, Europe and the U.S. He is currently finishing a winter/spring tour entitled Modern Romance in the Cross-Over medium; Jazz meets Classical.

Astashova is no stranger to the stage herself. Born in 1980 in Moscow, she started learning the violin at the age of five. Shortly thereafter, she was admitted to the central music school of Moscow where she was actively involved in both solo and chamber music performances.

Her mastery of violin was acknowledged earlier, resulting in her tenure with the youth orchestra of Moscow at the age of 15. Her successful participation in the key violin competitions led to many solo and chamber music appearances with top musicians both in Russian and abroad.

Having graduated Moscow Conservatory with the highest marks possible she joined the Symphony orchestra "New Russia" led by Yuri Bashmet. Despite a very demanding concert schedule with the orchestra, Astashova continues to actively pursue her solo and chamber music career. In 2006 she formed her own strings quartet " Prima Quartet" mainly consisting of the orchestra musicians successfully combining both the position of the Artistic Director and the first Violinist. The Prima Quartet today is one of the most sought after ensembles in Moscow.

In April, the Nassau Music Society will bring yet another peer of music legends to town, Lithuanian pianists Vilija Poskute and Tomas Daukantas to town.

The season began with a concert by Gabriel Bita and Masako Narikawa who performed some solo piano and some four hands one piano composition by various composers including Schubert, Schumann and Beethoven. They were followed by Terry Waldo, a well known ragtime pianist from New York who performed a show entitled "T'aint no Sin — an evening with Terry Waldo". He was joined by Bahamian singer and committee member Simone Fitzcharles and dancers from the Yodephy Dance and Modeling Academy."

*For more information on the Nassau Music Society events, you can telephone 242-327-7668, or log on to www.nassaumusicsociety.org.