Pianist’s estranged wife charged with killing 2 daughters

Texas police say they’ve arrested the estranged wife of an internationally renowned pianist on capital murder charges in the deaths of the couple’s two young children.

Benbrook Police Cmdr. David Babcock said Monday that police have served an arrest warrant on Sofya Tsygankova, wife of the Ukranian pianist Vadym Kholodenko.

Police found the couple’s two children, 5-year-old Nika Kholodenko and 1-year-old Michela Kholodenko, slain in their beds Thursday in Benbrook, a suburb of Fort Worth. Authorities said Tsygankova was in an “extreme state of distress.”

She remains in a Fort Worth hospital for a mental health evaluation. Authorities say she suffered knife wounds.

Vadym Kholodenko won the prestigious Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth in 2013.

Kholodenko had ties to El Paso. He opened the El Paso Symphony’s season in 2013 playing Tchaikovsky.

He also performed a recital at a special fundraiser for the El Paso Symphony Orchestra for an intimate group at a private home.

An attorney for Tsygankova did not return immediately messages Monday.