Young pianists from Finland, Germany, Singapore, Uzbekistan and UK performing rarely heard works for piano by composers Lyadov, Lyapunov, Medtner, Mosolov, Myaskovky, Shoot, Stanchinsky, Volkonsky and Ustvolskaya. The concert includes the UK premiere of Nikolay Golovanov’s Piano Sonata.
A. LYADOV Prelude, Op. 11 no. 2; A Musical Snuff-Box, Op. 32
S. LYAPUNOV Lesghinka from Douze études d’exécution transcendante, Op. 11
N. MEDTNER Tales, Op. 20; Elegy, Op. 59 no. 1
N. MYASKOVSKY Tune, Op. 29 no. 1
A. STANCHINSKY Three Preludes, Nocturne in E, Sonata in E-flat minor
N. GOLOVANOV Sonata UK Première
A. MOSOLOV Two Nocturnes, Op. 15
D. SHOSTAKOVICH Prelude and Fugue in E minor, Op. 87 no. 4
G. USTVOLSKAYA Sonata no. 1
A. VOLKONSKY Musica stricta
V. SHOOT Street Musicians, Rain During, Sunshine, Falling Leaves, Sounds of Waltz, Sad Dream, Kite From Children’s Album
Thomas ANG, Hector DOCX, Mikhail DUBOV, Thomas KNIGHT, Martin MALMGREN, Maria RAZUMOVSKAYA, Nika SHOOT, Drew STEANSON, Nafis UMERKULOVA (piano)
Thomas Ang studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Hamish Milne and Diana Ketler, and at the Guildhall School with Andrew West and Eugene Asti. He has won prizes for his performances of Beethoven, Frederick Delius, Arthur Bliss and the contemporary piano repertoire, and has been praised for his thoughtful and critical programming and excellent technique. He has also earned recognition as a specialist in the music of Nikolai Kapustin, having played and conducted premieres of his compositions in the UK, US, Singapore, and Australia.
Off the concert stage, Thomas works as a répétiteur and ballet pianist. He sometimes accompanies and improvises for silent film, appearing at various festivals and events. Thomas also plays the violin, and writes poetry and piano transcriptions of songs and symphonies.
Hector Docx is a British pianist and composer, currently based in Hamburg, Germany.
As a pianist he aims to create a bridge between new music and old music. His most recent program of Bagatelles incorporates the works of Beethoven and Bartok with newly commissioned Bagatelles by living composers. In 2017 he performed with both the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra in performing two world premieres.
He dedicated much of 2016 to rediscovering and performing the forgotten piano works of the ‘Russian Avantgarde’, a group of composers who were prolific in Russia before the 1917 October Revolution. His work culminated in April 2016, when he directed and founded his own music festival, “Klang der Unruhe” (‘Sound of Unease”), which had the piano works of the composer Alexey Stanchinsky (1888-1914) at its center.
Recent commissions for composition, include the Kammerakademie Potsdam, Leibnitz Orchestra Hannover and a collaboration with the Sao Paolo Gallery.
An award winner of the prestigious International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs in Paris, Mikhail Dubov enjoys his professional career as a data scientist while also being active as a solo recitalist and a chamber musician. He studied the piano with Olga Gruzdeva at the Chopin College in Moscow and later with Olga Potekhina while getting his degree in computer science. He has also had master classes with Rena Shereshevskaya, İdil Biret and Philip Fowke. In 2014, he won the 3rd prize and the Press award at the 25th International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs in Paris.
Mikhail Dubov has appeared at a number of international festivals, including the travelling ‘Les Amateurs Virtuoses!’ piano festival, for which he has played in Paris, Bayreuth, Saint Petersburg and Cape Town. What distinguishes his concert programmes is the original choice of repertoire that features many less known masterpieces by Russian composers such as Medtner, Taneyev and Golovanov, whose music he premiered in France.
Thomas Knight is a British pianist from the south of England. He enjoys playing unusual repertoire and has a particular interest in early twentieth century piano sonatas.
Thomas studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with Fali Pavri from 2011 to 2015, and subsequently continued his studies there for a while with Norman Beedie. He has performed at Wesley Chapel in Harrogate, and in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He is currently based in London and is planning to give recitals throughout the UK.
Thomas is also an exceptional improviser at the piano. Inspired by 20th century harmony, and influenced by the different pieces he plays, he is developing a unique and distinctive sound. He is also a deep thinker into technique and interpretation.
Martin Malmgren has made himself known as a versatile performer, equally at home on stage as a soloist, lied pianist and chamber musician. With an unusually wide repertoire ranging from early baroque up until the music of our times, he takes delight in surprising his audiences by performing unjustly neglected works and composers, in addition to the standard repertoire. Always aiming at finding meaningful connections between different composers, his concert programs typically show a thoughtful approach which builds bridges between different musical styles and periods. Martin is also founder of the Key Discoveries piano recital series in Helsinki, and more recently, he founded the Helsinki Chamber Orchestra together with conductor James Kahane and concertmaster Aku Sorensen.
As a sought-after soloist, he has appeared with such orchestras as Sinfonia Lahti, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Belgrade Symphony, Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, Torun Philharmonic Orchestra, Oulu Sinfonia, Jyväskylä Sinfonia and numerous others. With over 30 concertos in his repertoire, Martin has frequently championed rarely-heard music, and recently gave the Nordic premiere of Doreen Carwithen's piano concerto, with Helsinki Chamber Orchestra in spring 2019.
Described as a ‘virtuoso story-teller of the piano’ (Le Courrier), Maria Razumovskaya has performed extensively across the United Kingdom and internationally. Her most recent notable appearances include the coveted BBC Introducing Showcase at the Pittville Pump Rooms for the Cheltenham Festival, St John’s Smith Square, Cadogan Hall, St Martin-in-the-Fields, St James’ Piccadilly, Jacqueline du Pre Concert Hall, the Holywell Rooms, Piano City Milano, and repeat invitations to play across Switzerland, including the Lavaux Classique Festival alongside Nikolai Lugansky, Marc-Andre Hamelin and Piotr Anderszewski. Her live performances have been recorded and broadcast on BBC Radio 3 including performances and interviews for the ‘In Tune’ programme and featured as highlights in their ‘Performing Miracles’ series), and RTS Espace 2. Razumovskaya’s debut disc, Liszt B Minor Piano Sonata and Other Works (Malachite), recorded by Tony Faulkner, was received with critical acclaim and was shortlisted for the Liszt Disque Grand Prix, and has been followed by further recordings of Busoni, Liszt, Rachmaninov supported by Arts Council England, and a new release of Mussorgsky and Tchaikovsky.
Her upcoming initiatives include an international festival this February and March, supported by the British Council and British Embassy in Moscow, that brings together the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Mariinsky Theatre and Rimsky-Korsakov Museum in a celebration of Russian-British cultural exchange through words and music as part of Russia-UK Year of Music. Razumovskaya’s publications include the first critical monograph on the legendary pianist-pedagogue Heinrich Neuhaus (Boydell and Brewer: 2018), a chapter on the music of Nikolai Medtner (Indiana University Press: 2020), and several articles on the synthesis of Russian musical and literary culture, and musical pedagogy. She is in demand as a guest artist and faculty member for various international music festivals, and teaches at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London. Razumovskaya is a Steinway Artist.
Nika (Veronika) Shoot was born in Russia (Moscow) to a family of musicians and moved to England aged 5 when her father Vladislav Shoot was appointed composer-in-residence at Dartington Hall. Since her debut piano recital at the age of 7 at the Dartington International Summer School Festival Veronika's piano career has taken her for worldwide performances and tours.
Veronika has given concerts at many of Uk’s leading concert venues including the Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, St John's Smith Square, Purcell Room and Steinway Hall. She has also performed regularly at the Dartington Great Hall throughout the years. Other countries she has given concerts in include France, Belgium, Czech Republic, Hungary, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Russia, Israel, Turkey, Greece, Colombia and Peru.
Veronika studied with full scholarships in Yehudi Menuhin and then Purcell schools of Music, and graduated with first class honours from the Royal Academy of Music, followed by completing her Master of performance degree with Distinction in the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland under a full scholarship in 2013. A recipient of many prizes and awards she was a winner of the Yamaha International Piano Competition (YMFE) and Two Moors Festival.
Alongside her solo work, Veronika enjoys a rich and varied repertoire of chamber music. Veronika has a great passion in musical education, aiming to give musical opportunities to more people and has devised many collaborations, masterclasses and concerts for all types of audiences. In May 2019 her new album ‘Journey Through Childhood’ was released under the Ulysses Arts label, and is available on all major streaming platforms as well as a CD.
26-year-old, British-Australian pianist, Drew Steanson is currently studying with Alessandra Brustia at the Bolzano Conservatoire.
He started receiving piano lessons in January 2007 and passed Grade 8 with distinction in February 2010. He recently finished his undergraduate degree with Philip Jenkins at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Previously he studied at Peter Symonds College in Winchester where he participated in the Hampshire Specialist Music Course and gave a concerto performance at Thornden Hall.
While at Guildhall he won many prizes including the title of Newbury Young Musician of the Year 2012 and the Guildhall Romantic Piano Prize 2015. Drew has played in many of London's most prestigious concert halls including the Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall, St James's Piccadilly, Steinway Hall and at Inner Temple in the Temple Young Emerging Artists Series.
He recently performed Rachmaninoff's 1st Piano Concerto with The Corinthian Orchestra under conductor Adrian Brown. In November 2018 he was invited to perform in the 1st Nikolai Medtner International Music Festival in Berlin.
He has played to many distinguished pianists including Idil Beret, Vladimir Tropp, Boris Berman and Angela Hewitt.
Born in Tashkent, Nafis Umerkulova started piano at the age of 5. A few years later she became a prize-winner of various piano competitions at home and abroad.
In 2004 Nafis was awarded a full scholarship to continue her musical education at the Purcell School, Royal Academy of Music (2006) and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (2010). While studying at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Nafis became a winner of the prestigious RSC concerto competition and recorded Schubert’s Sonata D958 for the BBC’s Schubert Documentary.
Her numerous performances in UK feature recitals in Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Glasgow City Halls, Manchester Bridgewater Hall, Birmingham Town and Symphony Halls.
Nafis is a winner of the Edith Steinitz Prize, 3rd prize at the International BRANT Competition and a recipient of the Myre Hess award by Help Musicians UK.
In September 2019 Nafis released her debut album “Darkness illuminated’ featuring the music of Alexander Scriabin and his rarely heard contemporary – Alexei Stanchinsky.
Please note the starting time of this concert
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