Biography

Vera Breheda , born in Hamburg, Germany of Ukrainian parents, came to the U.S at age three. She spent her early childhood in Buffalo, New York where piano and dance consumed most of her after school time. Her early memories were of her parents singing folk songs of their native Ukraine. At age 11, Vera’s family moved to San Francisco where she soon became a scholarship piano student of Alma Harrington, Adolph Baller, and Marcus Gordon. at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Within several years, she was soloist with the San Francisco Symphony in a special youth concert. She continued her studies with Martin Canin at SUNY Stony Brook, and Leonard Shure in Boston, and in 1983 gave her New York recital debut at Carnegie Recital Hall (Weill Recital Hall). Performing music of many styles, from Baroque to 21st century, Vera Breheda’s concertizing has taken her from San Francisco, to New York, Boston, Los Angeles and Seattle, as well as to Germany Austria, Czechoslovakia, Japan and Russia. Vera Breheda has appeared as soloist with the Prague Chamber Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the Oakland Symphony, the Thalia Orchestra in Seattle, the Kensington Symphony, the Diablo Valley Philharmonic, and the Contra Costa Chamber Orchestra. Breheda has also been a participant in the music festivals at Tanglewood, Aspen, Banff, Florida West Coast, and the Moscow Conservatory of Music. At Banff she was a guest artist with the Fine Arts Quartet. Locally, her Bay Area Solo, duo piano (Kuderna Breheda Duo) and chamber recitals have been in Hertz Hall, Julia Morgan Theater, Trinity Chapel, Old First Church, St. Patrick’s Church and Herbst Theater. She has collaborated in West Coast concerts with violinists Mischa Lefkowitz, Michael Goldstein, Leonid Levin, cellists Rebecca Rust, Burke Shuchmann and Soprano, Vanessaa Langer. Her CD, “Brahms Piano Works”, won the 2006 Just Plain Folks Music Awards in the Best Classical Solo Album category. The CD is distributed by Con Brio, a classical record label, and is available at www. Con BrioRecordings.com. Another CD followed of Mozart and Beethoven Piano Sonatas. Recent performances included Brahms Piano Trios at the California Music Festival and soloist in Mozart Piano Concertos No. 9 & 21 with the Contra Costa and Moraga Chamber Orchestras. She also toured China and Japan in 2006 - 2013 with the San Francisco-Munich Trio. A New York Times review of her Carnegie Recital Hall recital called her “ a pianist who seems totally engaged in the music she plays.”