About Us
The Chopin Vodka Concert Meister Series is a global collaborative project that brings the leading instrumentalists from the world's most prestigious orchestras, out of the orchestra and on the intimate stage. It is a global community of artists, organizations, leaders and patrons working together to achieve one common goal, to inspire and integrate master performing artists with ordinary individuals.

Simona DeFeo, Executive Director & Producer

Ms. DeFeo has over twelve years of combined experience in managing large scale cultural and organizational development projects both in the private and public sector. Leveraging her corporate experience and passion for the arts for the past four years, Ms. DeFeo has been working on using the power of music as catalyst for innovation and social change. Her repertoire of cultural projects includes producing concerts and planning music festivals in the United States, Italy and Russia. Simona also advises business leaders on resilience and organizational strategy. Her clients have included Citi, US Senate, TIAA-CREF, Wachovia, Credit Suisse, UBS, Goldman Sachs and Johnson and Johnson and many others. Most recently, she has been involved in converging her passion for art with corporate responsibility and strategic initiatives. When not working with her corporate and country partners, she can be found in the dance and acting studios of Manhattan and writing poetry.

 

Elisha Abas, Artistic Director
Elisha Abas, Israeli born concert pianist, was the life long student of Pnina Salzman, a student of Alfred Cortot and mentee of Artur Rubinstein. La Roma, National Italian Newspaper, commented on a recent performance in Naples, Italy saying, “he is the most refined and interesting pianists of our generation…his “playing is the perfect marriage of exuberant musicality restrained with the right dose of rationalism that is rich with colors and shades. His palette shines in all his splendor with a captivating performance of Chopin and Schumann”. Elisha Abas has been described by many industry luminaries as “one of a kind”. He projects a rare combination of intellect, elegance and pedigree. Likely inherited from his great-great grandfather legendary Russian Composer Alexander Scriabin, his rare interpretations are strongly reminiscent of the pianists of the golden age. Mr. Abas was a child prodigy who started performing at the age of six and has since shared the stage with great artists such as, Isaac Stern, Leonard Bernstein and Zubin Mehta.

Abas has achieved many accolades throughout his career. Those most notable were achieved when he was a was a young prodigy – winning first place in the American-Israel Cultural Foundation music competition for eight consecutive years and first place in the Claremont Piano Competition. He continues to perform in many venues throughout the United States, Italy, Russia, Israel, and China. In the fall of 2008, Elisha performed his original music in St. Petersburg’s Smonlny Cathedral for the first time.


Sebastyan Zaborowski, Strategic Advisor
Sebastyan Zaborowski, M.B.A is a native New Yorker who graduated from The Stuyvesant High School for Mathematics and Science.  He has over nine years of internal consulting experience for Fortune 100 companies. Sebastyan has been engaged as a strategy, positioning, branding and business development advisor to start-ups, small business owners and non-for-profit organizations since 2002.  Mr. Zaborowski will assist the Concert Meister with Advisory Board Development and strategic growth initiatives.