DUO SOLISTA • Olga Kotova (violin) and Dmitry Nesterov (piano) have played together since they were 17 and named themselves Duo Solista to reflect their dedication to being both solo artists and life partners.

Dmitry Nesterov arrived on the Canadian music scene in 1992 when he became a Laureate in the First Esther Honens Calgary International Piano Competition. Since settling in Canada with his family in 1994, Mr. Nesterov has impressed audiences, critics and colleagues alike with concert and recital work. He has appeared as a soloist with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the Edmonton Symphony, the Lethbridge and Red Deer Symphonies, Kamloops Symphony Orchestra as well as with numerous orchestras in Russia.

Mr. Nesterov had been a frequent guest at the Banff Arts Festival and the Mozart Festival in Kelowna, the Millenium Foundation Concert Series in Calgary, Armenian Society in Montreal, Czechoslovakian and Hungerian Foundations in Calgary, and has collaborated with the Alberta Ballet, New Works Calgary, the St. Lawrence String Quartet, Flutist Patrick Gallois, Pianist Jon Kimura Parker, violinist Katherine Manoukian, the Aubade Chamber Ensemble, conductors Hans Graf, Mario Bernardy Claude Lapalme, Kirk Muspratt, Jean Larouge, Alex Pauk, Bernard Labadie and can be heard on CBC Radio.

Dmitry Nesterov is a graduate of the Central Music School in Moscow, Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory and the University of Calgary. Mr. Nesterov is a faculty member of the Mount Royal University, teaching at the Academy for gifted youth, and as a private instructor in Calgary. 

Olga Kotova is a graduate of the Central Music School in Moscow, where she received her Honour Diploma in Violin Performance from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, as well as a Master of Music degree from the University of Calgary.

Ms. Kotova has performed in solo recitals and with orchestras in Russia, Bulgaria, Germany, and was a semi-finalist at the International Jeunesses Musicales Violin Competition in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (1991) and the Lois Spohr International Violin Competition in Freiburg, Germany (1991).

Since coming to Canada in 1994, Ms. Kotova has been actively performing in recitals with her husband Dmitry Nesterov (together known as Duo Solista) across Alberta and British Columbia. She has been a frequent guest at the Banff Arts Festival and Mozart Festival in Kelowna, the Instrumental Society of Calgary, New Works Calgary, and has collaborated with the St. Lawrence String Quartet, the University of Calgary String Quartet, Ensemble Resonnance and the Aubade Chamber Ensemble.

Olga has been a First Violins section member of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra since 1996, and has been featured as soloist with the CPO on several occasions, performing under the batons of Bernard Labadie and Franz-Paul Decker.

Mezzo-soprano Nan Hughes has a career that spans the globe, touring and recording throughout Europe, the United States, Canada, Ukraine and Brazil. She founded the close harmony vocal trio, Times Three (www.timesthree.org), which performs the American songbook across North America. A well-known interpreter of contemporary music, she premiered both the roles of Katherine Anne Porter in Anton Coppola’s riveting opera Sacco and Vanzetti, in Tampa, Florida, and the title role in Sebastian Hutchings’ The Agony of Mrs. Stone, in Banff, Canada.

As winner of the Artists International competition in New York city, she was presented in recital at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall. Other New York recitals include at Merkin Hall, at the Museum of Modern Art’s Sculpture Garden and, as a soloist with Continuum, at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. She has also appeared with the famed Boston Pops.

Her recording of Berg and Zemlinsky songs, recorded at the Banff Centre with Gruppo Montebello and released throughout Europe in 2017, received rave reviews. In Germany, they called her a “successor to Lotte Lenya,” adding, “she radiates an existential power and a heartfelt naturalness in the interpretation of these melancholic laments.”

Nan enjoys teaching voice and public speaking, at the Banff Centre, for The Shoe Project in the Bow Valley, and in her private studio. For many summers, she has been the vocal soloist at Music by the Sea on Vancouver Island, singing both classical pieces and jazz selections.

Nan earned a BA in English & American Literature from Harvard University (cum laude), a MM in Vocal Performance from Boston University (a Dean’s Scholar) and studied at the Juilliard Opera Center in New York (on full scholarship). In 2023 she was honoured with the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Medal for her work as a champion of the arts.