Our Teachers
Jelena Bezkrovnaja
Violin, cello
Born into the family of an army major and an opera singer, Jelena began her first steps in music under the tutelage of her mother, who was very fond of Ukrainian folk songs.
After attending elementary music school she continued her education in Jazepa Medina Music Academy in the class of Jacob Geringas in Riga, Latvia. Jelena graduated with honors and a laureate Diploma from a regional violin competition held by music academies in the city of Daugavpils and with a required recommendation to continue graduate studies in the Latvian State Conservatory, currently Jazeps Vitols Latvian Academy of Music.
Jelena studied in the class of Voldemar Shelegov and Juris Svolkovskis and received the degree of Masters in Music Performance. During her years of study in the conservatory, she showed profound interest and outstanding results in teaching practicum class under Dr. A. Magid and was recommended to take part in the music faculty in Emila Darzina Music School for exceptionally gifted children. She taught at that school from 1973-1993 raising a pleiad of musicians and teachers, who are continuing to work in high education institutions in Latvia and across the world.
During the 1990s Mrs Bezkrovnaja continued her musical career in Taiwan, performing with Taipei Philharmonic orchestra under the baton of Henry Mazur, who for 30 years worked as an assistant of Sir George Solti in the Boston Symphony, she also played with the Taipei City Orchestra with Chen Chao Shen during their world tour to France, performing in the Theatre of Champs-Elysee.
Professor Bezkrovnaja spent a decade of her life in Mexico accepting the invitation she received from internationally acclaimed guitarist Roberto Limon to become a member of newly formed Orchestra de Baja California.
She taught extensively for 10 years in various musical institutions – Centro de Estudios Musicales and then music faculty at UABC (Baja California University) in Ensenada, Mexico. Among her students was Angel Salazar. She also traveled to central Mexico to become a string faculty in Conservatorio Las Rosas and the newly built music school Ocalucas in Morelia, Michoacan.
Since 2002, she has resided in San Diego, California. For a number of years Professor Bezkrovnaja performed with San Diego Chamber Orchestra under the baton of its founder Donald Barra. For 20 years she was a string coach in Poway High School and successfully founded several after-school music programs in the elementary schools in Carmel Valley, San Diego.
From 2012 Jelena joined her daughter in the orchestra program in Roger Rowe Elementary and Middle school in Rancho Santa Fe, California and continues to offer strings and piano lessons in her private studio “Eta Karina Music.”
Vadim Bezkrovnijs
Violin, Viola, Cello, Bass and Piano
Originally from Riga, Latvia, Vadim Bezkrovnijs holds a Master of Music degree from the Latvian National Academy of Music, and a Ph.D from the Gnessin State Music Pedagogical Institute in Moscow. He has performed as Principal Viola with the Latvian Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, the Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra de Baja California, and with the San Diego Chamber Orchestra, participating in numerous international concert tours, hundreds of solo and chamber ensemble recitals, and more than twenty recordings. Vadim Bezkrovnijs was was a 2001 nominee for the Latin Grammy Award.
He has taught viola, violin and chamber music at the Emila Darzina Music School for Gifted children in Riga; the University of Taichung, Taiwan; the Conservatory Las Rosas in Morelia, Mexico; and the University of Baja California. Dr. Bezkrovnijs joined the music department of Southwestern College, in Chula Vista, CA in 2005, initiating first string class in many years. Under his direction the string class has grown into a strong and thriving program including string quartet that performs frequent recitals; violin students that support mariachi classes; and the creation of the Southwestern College Chamber Orchestra.
His students are numbered among the finest string players in the world, holding positions with the Boston Lyric Opera, the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra and the Dallas Symphony.
Karina Bezkrovnaia
Violin, Viola, Cello and Piano
Karina Bezkrovnaia, born in Riga, Latvia. is a third-generation professional musician. She started piano lessons at age 3 and, at age 6, was admitted to the violin class at Emila Darzina Music School for specially gifted children.
In 1986, Karina continued her education at the Academic Music College at the Moscow State Conservatory. In 1988, she won 3rd prize at the Nyirbator Competition in Hungary, and in 1991, she was admitted to the prestigious Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory. The following year, she was invited to take part in the newly founded Kremlin Chamber Orchestra and made two CD recordings in the Tchaikovsky Conservatory Great Hall.
Her teachers have included world-renowned musicians such as Paganini Competition first prize winner Boris Belkin as well as Yuri Bashmet and Dr. Felix Andrievsky at the Royal College of Music in London. For 10 years, Karina enjoyed intense collaboration as the Concertmaster and soloist with the Orchestra de Baja California in Mexico, resulting in 9 CDs, one of which was nominated for a 2001 Latin Grammy. She has toured extensively as a concert and chamber musician as well as a featured soloist and has appeared in many international chamber music festivals, including 12 years with the Festival Hispanoamericano de Guitarra in Tijuana, Mexico.
In 2003, Karina received the Merit Diploma from the prestigious Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Sienna, Italy. In 2004, she recorded a CD with the San Diego Symphony featuring her in “Winter” from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, followed by a performance with Placido Domingo. Her solo CD recording on iTunes features Mozart, Schubert and Grieg violin sonatas and was completed in 2008 in London on a 1703 Golden Period Stradivari violin lent to her for the occasion by Florian Leonhard Fine Violins Foundation, London, UK.
Karina’s career as a teacher as well as a working musician has been noteworthy and energetic, resulting in high quality music instruction and innovative programming where none existed before. She was involved in opening three new music schools, including a string department at college level at Universidad de Baja California and Tijuana Youth Orchestra modeled after the Venezuelan method “El Sistema” in collaboration with Gustavo Dudamel.
Devoted to her own family teaching legacy, Karina founded a new, award-winning string program at the Roger Rowe Elementary and Middle School in Rancho Santa Fe, California, in the fall of 2007. Under her direction, the ensemble was nominated four times for 1st Place, “Extraordinary,” in the Elementary School Performance Group category at Disney’s Music in the Parks state festival. In addition to her position at Roger Rowe, Karina has been a member of the string faculty at Sanderling Waldorf School since 2015. Her students’ achievements include concertmaster positions and section principals in the San Diego Youth Symphony as well as international recording artists, among many other accomplishments.
As an active freelance musician in San Diego she continues to perform with the California Chamber Orchestra and Classics 4 Kids Philharmonic and has just completed her 15th season as concertmaster at the Old Globe Theater. Her past engagements included San Diego Chamber Orchestra, San Diego Symphony and Lyric Opera San Diego.