Oyster Duo

The Oyster Duo is a dynamic and exciting pair of the world class pianist Anna Fedorova and double bassist Nicholas Schwartz. Having met on the sands of the Brazilian coast, they bonded over the love of the oyster. Many people ask, why the name, “Oyster Duo”? The oyster? A sophisticated, refined delicacy with a special taste of the sea, and like the music can even have an aphrodisiac effect. When Anna and Nicky first started playing together, they considered the oysters delicate and refined qualities in combination with the wild taste of the sea as being similar to the combination of sophisticated music making played with freedom and abandon.

Anna Fedorova´s live recording of Rachmaninoff’s 2nd Piano Concerto has over 37 million views on YouTube and is highly acclaimed by critics and world-renowned musicians. She regularly performs at the world’s most prestigious concert halls such as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, New York's Carnegie Hall & Lincoln Center, Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, Tonhalle Zürich, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo, and London’s Barbican Centre & Royal Albert Hall.

As a soloist, Anna Fedorova has performed with many wonderful orchestras such as the Philharmonia Orchestra, Verbier Festival Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony, Yomiuri Orchestra, Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, Utah Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, and the Netherlands Philharmonic. Nicknamed the ‘house pianist’ (Telegraaf) of the Concertgebouw, Anna Fedorova has given over 45 concerts in this prestigious concert hall in Amsterdam, often live broadcasted. In July 2022, Anna performed with the Verbier Festival Orchestra under the baton of Gianandrea Noseda at the opening of the Verbier Festival. And a week later, she made her debut at the international piano festival La Roque d’Anthéron with a solo recital, to much acclaim in both local and international press.

Nicholas Santangelo Schwartz, double bassist of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, is a distinguished artist on both the double bass and cello. He is perhaps the only one in the world performing on both instruments at an artist level. Nicholas is a laureate of multiple international competitions, including being the youngest winner ever (at 19) of the International Society of Bassists Competition, as well as the commission prize. He was also the first bassist in 43 years (in a unanimous vote) to have won the Stulberg International String Competition and its Bach award. Since then he has won the USA International Music Competition and has appeared as the opening artist for the International Society of Bassists Convention in San Francisco, as well as the Texas Double Bass symposium to fill in on short notice for Joel Quarrington.

In 2013, Nicholas became a tenured member of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, widely known as one of the greatest orchestras in the world. He formerly played with the Berlin Philharmonic as a student of the Karajan Akademie, and in the USA with the Boston Symphony and Pops orchestras. In addition to being a long time member of the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra, he was guest artist at multiple international chamber music festivals in Holland, Germany, Norway, Belarus, Italy and Brasil, with such artists as Anna Fedorova, Maximilian Hornung, Eldbjørg Hemsing, Benedict Kloekner, Janusz Wawrowski, Alexei Ogrintchouk, and Olivier Patey. With world famous pianist, Anna Fedorova he has formed the “Oyster Duo” performing across Europe, Ukraine and the US to promote the double bass as a solo instrument and to pioneer the dream that many bassists have of playing the incredible cello repertoire, yet on the cello itself.