Polina Osetinskaya in Berlin. Leonid Desyatnikov’s “Songs of Bukovina” Piano Recital 18 October 2026

On Sunday, October 18, 2026, at 7:00 p.m., the Jewish communities Chabad Berlin and Kahal Adass Jisroel e.V. invite you to a special concert evening featuring the outstanding pianist Polina Osetinskaya. The concert will take place in the Grand Hall of the Pears Jewish Campus, Westfälische Straße 15, 10709 Berlin.

The program centers on Leonid Desyatnikov’s “Songs of Bukovina”—24 preludes for piano. This cycle combines a contemporary musical language with the musical and folkloric traditions of Bukovina.

Leonid Desyatnikov (1955), born in Kharkiv and a graduate of the Leningrad Conservatory, is one of the leading composers of the post-Soviet cultural sphere. His oeuvre includes operas, cantatas, and vocal and instrumental works. In March 2022, following the start of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, Desyatnikov left Russia. Today he lives and works in Haifa.

This extraordinary cycle is performed by Polina Osetinskaya, whose international concert career began in her childhood. Today she performs on leading stages worldwide and also gives regular concerts in Israel. Her interpretations are characterized by technical precision, stylistic freedom, and exceptional musical expressiveness.

The names Leonid Desyatnikov and Polina Osetinskaya are associated with leading concert halls and ensembles worldwide. Desyatnikov’s music has been performed at venues including the Berlin Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall, the St. Petersburg Academic Philharmonic named after D. D. Shostakovich, and the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory. Notable performers of his music include Gidon Kremer, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Kremerata Baltica. Polina Osetinskaya has performed at venues including Carnegie Hall, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Musikverein, the Barbican Centre, the Salzburg Festival, and the Sydney Opera House, and has collaborated with ensembles such as musicAeterna, the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra.

The concert evening also previews another Berlin music project: Leonid Desyatnikov is currently working on the Yiddish-language chamber opera “Beregovsky’s Purim Play, ” which is scheduled to premiere in Berlin in 2028. The opera is based on the life’s work and research of the Kyiv-based musicologist and folklorist Moisei Beregovsky, who documented Jewish music, songs, and traditions in Ukraine shortly before World War II. Immediately after the liberation, he resumed his field research and collected songs and musical testimonies from survivors of former ghettos. In 1945, an expedition took him, among other places, to Bershad—the very ghetto that Roman Schwarzman survived as a child. In 2025, Schwarzman delivered a widely acclaimed historical speech in the German Bundestag on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Beregovsky’s recordings preserved unique voices and musical testimonies of a Jewish way of life that had been largely destroyed. Before he could publish his scholarly work on the centuries-old tradition of the Purim play, Beregovsky was arrested in 1950 during the Stalinist repressions. The opera is directed by Maxim Didenko, with a libretto by Katja Kuznetsova.

This concert evening combines Jewish musical culture from the pre-Shoah era with the memories of survivors and contemporary artistic creation.

Immediately following the approximately one-hour concert, there will be a brief on-stage discussion with Polina Osetinskaya and Sergei Tchoban. Among other things, Tchoban is the architect of the Pears Jewish Campus. The discussion will focus on music, art, architecture, and the question of how different art forms create spaces, shape memory, and alter our perception.

Producer and host of the evening: German Moyzhes

Partners and Supporters

Embassy of the State of Israel in Germany · German-Israeli Society (DIG) · Claims Conference · Berliner Sparkasse · Blavatnik Family Foundation · Fantastic Mr. Fox Ventures

Our thanks go to STEINWAY & SONS BERLIN.

Catering

Lampari · Lemberg

Doors open at 6:15 p.m. For security reasons, we ask all guests to bring a valid photo ID and to refrain from bringing large bags or backpacks.