Quartet Members
Nikita Borisevich,
violin
Nikita Borisevich is an internationally acclaimed violinist, who is frequently performing across the United States and Europe. Mr. Borisevich is a winner of numerous international music competitions and has performed on world renown stages such as The Kennedy Center (Washington, DC), Grand Hall of Moscow Conservatory (Moscow, Russia) Shriver Hall (Baltimore, Maryland) and Manuel de Falla Auditorium (Granada, Spain), among others.
Nikita Borisevich performs together with his wife, internationally acclaimed pianist Margarita Loukachkina as the Borisevich Duo. The Duo was a recipient of the inaugural Young Artist Development Series Award at The El Paso Pro Musica Festival in collaboration with Peabody Conservatory, and has since then been invited to do a residency at El Paso Pro Musica Festival, Northwest Bach Festival and Sitka Summer Music Festival by Grammy-Award-winning cellist, Zuill Bailey. The Borisevich Duo made their debut at the Venetian Arts Society in Florida, the Chamber Music Society of Maryland, The Shandelee Music Festival in New York and gave performances in France and Luxembourg. Most recently The Borisevich Duo performed at the Alden Theatre in McLean (VA), the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts (NY), the Gualala Chamber Music Society in Gualala (CA), the Tuesday Concert Series in Washington, DC and the Evensong Concert Series in Silver Spring (MD). In 2020 The Borisevich Duo was named a winner of the Beverly Hills National Auditions and will perform a series of concerts in Southern California in the 2021-2022 concert season.
Veronika Sveshnikova,
violin
Veronika Sveshnikova began her journey with the violin at the age of four and has been passionately pursuing music ever since. A winner of numerous international competitions and a participant in a variety of festivals, Veronika believes that her primary goal is to make the world a better place through music.
Her academic background includes both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree from the Novosibirsk State Conservatory in Russia, where she improved her skills and deepened her knowledge of music. She has extensive experience performing solo, in orchestras and various ensembles, touring through countries in Europe and Asia with a repertoire that includes works for solo violin as well as pieces for violin and orchestra and chamber music. Currently, Veronika is working on her Master’s program at Temple University in Philadelphia, furthering her education and artistic development, and she continues to actively build her performance career.
Renate Falkner,
viola
Praised for her versatility and creativity, American violist Renate Falkner leads an active international career as an educator, recitalist, and orchestral and chamber musician. Equally at home on modern and baroque viola, she performs regularly with ensembles such as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, and Artis-Naples, and has appeared with Boston Baroque, Tafelmusik, and Baltimore’s Pro Musica Rara. A dedicated chamber musician, she serves as Artistic Director of the Charm City Chamber Players, an ensemble highlighting the rich sonorities of violas and cellos, and is a member of the Chestertown Piano Quartet. Her performances have taken her to venues including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carnegie Hall, Jordan Hall, and London’s Royal Albert Hall, as well as festivals such as Verbier, Spoleto, and the Carvalho Festival in Brazil.
An engaged educator and scholar, Falkner holds faculty positions at the National Music Festival and the Orfeo Music Festival in Italy, and is currently an Artist Affiliate at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, in addition to her work at the Peabody Preparatory. She previously taught at the University of North Florida and George Mason University, and has served on the board of the American Viola Society, contributing to competitions, seminars, and research initiatives. She studied at Oberlin College and Conservatory and the Yale School of Music, and holds a doctorate from Florida State University, where her research focused on York Bowen’s viola works within the English Musical Renaissance. Her recordings appear on labels including Chandos, Nimbus, Naxos, and Rezound, and she continues to explore new collaborative and educational projects, including the Violin2Viola workshop series.dStreetReview.com
Jacques-Pierre Malan,
cello & Founder
Praised for his “vibrant musicality” and described as a “tour de force” (Beeld), South African cellist Jacques-Pierre Malan has performed throughout Africa, Europe, Asia, and the United States as a soloist, chamber musician, educator.
Malan serves as Cellist-in-Residence and Co-Artistic Director of the historic Embassy Series in Washington, D.C., where he develops programs that promote cultural understanding through music. www.embassyseries.org
He is also founder and Artistic Director of the Embassy String Quartet, the Quartet-in-Residence of the Embassy Series, which brings performances centered on cultural exchange and music diplomacy to audiences throughout the East Coast. www.embassystringquartet.com
A defining influence on Malan's artistic vision came in 2024 when he participated in the International Music Exchange Concerts tour of Japan, performing alongside artists from Europe and Asia in more than twenty cities across the country. Inspired by this experience, he founded International Exchange Concerts in the United States in 2025, an organization dedicated to fostering international artistic collaboration through concerts, tours, and educational initiatives connecting artists from around the world. www.iexchangeconcerts.com
As a concerto soloist, Malan has appeared with the Mid-Atlantic Symphony, KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic, Johannesburg Philharmonic, and Cape Town Philharmonic. His honors include awards from the Yale Gordon Foundation, the South African Music Rights Organization (SAMRO), and the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival. He was also featured in the documentary Getting to Carnegie Hall.
His current artistic project is a performance cycle of Alfredo Piatti's complete Twelve Caprices for Solo Cello, presented alongside lectures exploring the relationship between artistic excellence, personal growth, and the pursuit of seemingly impossible goals.
Malan holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Pretoria and both Master of Music and Artist Diploma degrees from the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University.