Anatoly Gelbak studied at the Saratov-Sobinov Conservatorium, one of Russia’s oldest and most prestigious training grounds for concert pianists. Among its other famous performers and teachers were Satanovsky, Goldfeder, Bednitsky and Anatoly Katz.
Anatoly began his studies at Saratov Conservatorium under Professor Satanovsky, and excelled at performing, chamber music and composition. The chamber music ensemble in which he played took first prizes in a number of national Russian student chamber music competitions.
After graduation Anatoly taught piano for 19 years at the Sukhumi State College of Music while at the same time pursuing a concert career which took him to all the major musical centres of the Soviet Union. He also was Chief Concertmaster and Assistant Conductor for the Abkhazia State Capella Choir.
Anatoly was a founding member of a piano trio which performed all over the Soviet Union in centres including Moscow, Leningrad, Riga, Donetsk, Tallinn, Vilnius and many others.
He also played piano concertos with the Sukhumi, Tbilisi, Kiev and Nalchik symphony orchestras. His concert repertuire included composers such as Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saëns, Rimsky-Korsakov, Gershwin, Poulenc and Petrov.
He toured the length and breadth of Russia with the Abkhazia State Capella Choir and in addition, he was Musical Director for such shows as My Fair Lady and The Gypsies in the Abkhazia State Drama Theatre.
He also gave countless recitals and accompanied singers and instrumentalists.
Anatoly arrived in Australia in 1989 with his family and immediately became active within the Melbourne music scene. Drawing on his vast experience as a teacher and performer, over his time in Australia he has taught at a number of institutions such as:
Other activities which Anatoly coordinated or was actively involved with include arrangments of numerous school musical productions at McKinnon Secondary College, Murrumbeena Secondary College, Bialik College, St Kevin’s College and others. Anatoly also wrote arrangements for school orchestras and assisted in the opera studio at the Voice and Opera department of the Victorian College of the Arts as concertmaster (also training students in German and Italian pronunciation).
He regularly accompanied students for AMEB, VCE and Trinity College instrumental and vocal examinations.
Anatoly's performing carreer in Australia includes a concert series as pianist in the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra as well as a number of solo peformances and regular participation in Jewish community choral concerts and accompanying soloists in Australia and New Zealand.
More recently, peforming has taken a back seat for Anatoly and he now enjoys teaching aspiring young musicians and nurturing budding talents.
Please contact Anatoly for further information on teaching and performing.