Tanya Anisimova

Interview by Kevin Adler.

Source: https://mocoshow.com/2026/02/19/cellist-tanya-anisimova-returns-to-arts-barn-on-march-7-sponsored/

Kentlands resident Tanya Anisimova welcomes spring with the music of Rachmaninoff, Schubert and her own composition at the Arts Barn on March 7. An acclaimed cellist and interpreter of Bach and 19th-century Romantic composers, Anisimova discusses the emotional pull of the music she loves and her personal journey.

Arts Barn: Do you live locally?

Tanya Anisimova: I live in Kentlands. I can walk to the Arts Barn. My husband and I moved here in 2017, and I started to perform at the Arts Barn and Mansion and Mansion in 2018 and have played there regularly since.

Arts Barn: You have not performed much since 2021 because you were caring for your husband, the painter Alexander Anufriev.

Anisimova: I was concertizing heavily up until my husband was diagnosed with lung cancer. He died in October 2024. He was diagnosed in 2019, and all this time I was by his side. I call it my Long Covid. The experience changed the way I viewed the world and myself in it. My priorities became clear: caring for a loved one and that art cannot be made well if you are not doing something that you feel is true.

Arts Barn: Did this change how you perform?

Anisimova: I believe the experience improved my way of playing, reflecting inward rather than outward, reflecting my feelings and having quiet time to think. The concert’s themes are spring and a new awakening, and that represents both the season and me spreading my wings and going back on the stage.

Arts Barn: It seems you have a special affinity for J.S. Bach, though you won’t be performing Bach at the Arts Barn.

Anisimova: (Laughing) I think Bach chose me. His music was always an outlet [for] whatever was happening in my life. It started in my teenage years. I always felt Bach had a calming effect; I felt it before I could understand it.

When I came to Boston in 1990 from Soviet Union, I went to the MIT library and listened to everything they had by Bach. In Soviet Union [where Anisimova was born and lived through her teen years], musicians were deprived of understanding Bach’s music. They played the notes but could not interpret the music [because] they did not know the motivations of the composer. When I heard the Western recordings … they were deeply felt and changed the way I played Bach.

Bach’s music is deeply spiritual. He always wrote the same phrase in all of his manuscripts: “Glory to God.” He felt that he was inspired by God.

Arts Barn: Please tell us about the three pieces you will be performing.

Anisimova: The Rachmaninoff Sonata in G Minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 19. is the anchor piece. Rachmaninoff was only 19 when he wrote this work, and it is the height of the Romantic style, so expressive for both cello and piano. He dedicated it to a wonderful Russian cellist, Anatoliy Brandukov.

The Schubert is the Arpeggione Sonata. Schubert originally wrote it for the arpeggione in 1824. The instrument was popular then, and he must have been fascinated with it, but it has not survived; it’s similar to a guitar but played with a bow.

My husband Alexander painted angels for much of his life, and we both loved Schubert’s music. In my mind, Schubert is connecting this material world with the ideal world. The true Romantic music, even the sweetest, happiest melody in a major key, it’s still a little bittersweet. And the particular aspect of Schubert’s music is the play of light and shadow. When I play Schubert, I step into another world, time is frozen. The world becomes an illusion.

Arts Barn: Your third piece is your own composition.

My composition is Farela, which references three musical pitches: F-D-A. I composed it in 2015 for cello and piano, and I think it brings a sparkling dialogue for the two instruments. I was born in the Chechen Republic and grew up there. My grandfather was pure-blood Chechen, and he introduced me to folk songs and dances. You will hear that in Farela, though some people mistake it for flamenco! My composition style is not ultra-contemporary; I love music that is pleasing to the ear, modal not atonal.

Arts Barn: Can you talk more about what you like about Romantic music and what it brings to the listener?

Anisimova: Romanticism is … an artist’s emotional shout into the world about what they are and what they believe. A wonderful Russian pianist Maria Yudina says that all great music is Romantic—and I agree. Music has to touch your soul, come from the composer’s heart. It’s something we want the world to be.

Arts Barn: You will be accompanied by pianist Ilya Itin. Tell us about him and your collaboration.

Anisimova: We are both from the same alma mater in Russia. The Rachmaninoff Sonata is quite a tour de force for the piano. Rachmaninoff was a wonderful pianist himself, so obviously he wrote an extended part for the piano. The cello is soaring [in accompaniment] with a beautiful melody.

Ilya is a stellar performer, but what is even more important to me is that he is thoughtful and possesses an infinite palette of musical expressions.

Arts Barn: What’s been your experience playing at the Arts Barn?

Anisimova: I’m glad that the Arts Barn is doing this series. It brings the community together, and people are regulars for the concerts. I love seeing the regulars, and I know that other artists feel the same. It shows that people really need this. Musicians need it as well; if they don’t perform for awhile, they feel suffocated.

Tanya Anisimova will perform the Arpeggione Sonata with a guitarist and her composition Sinfonieta in Florence, Italy, in October. In addition, she is preparing for an ambitious recording project. As part of completing her PhD in Musical Arts at Yale University in 2001, Anisimova transcribed and recorded all six Bach violin sonatas for cello in the original keys, becoming the first person to do so. She intends to re-record the sonatas and partitas, hoping “it will inspire other cellists to start learning them and add them to their repertoires.”