Invented 100 years ago by Russian Physicist Lev Thermen, the Theremin is an unique instrument which is played without being touched. The workshop will be led by British based composer Lydia Kavina, the inventor’s last protégée. Programme includes works by Tchaikovsky, Medtner, Rachmaninov as well as contemporary composers Popov, Rostovskaya and Yusupova.
No prior knowledge of musical notation is required for the workshops, which will be accessible to both English and Russian speakers.
11am-1pm, 1pm - 3pm
Workshops
4pm - 6pm
Theremin presentation and concert
M. GLINKA The Lark from ‘A Farewell to Saint Petersburg’
A. VARLAMOV ‘Ne shey ty mne matushka’
S. RACHMANINOV ‘Ne poy, krasavitsa, pri mne’, Op. 4 no. 4, Spring Waters, Op. 14 no. 11
P. TCHAIKOVSKY Waltz sentimentale, Op. 51 no. 6
N. MEDTNER Sonate-Vocalise, Op. 41 no. 1
T. NAZAROVA-MEDTNER Crying Yaroslavna (UK Première)
O. ROSTOVSKAYA ‘Julietta’ (UK Première), ‘Russian Bell’
A. POPOV Sagebush
L. KAVINA In Green; Vox Fox
I. YUSUPOVA ‘The Wind Rose’, Ave Maria (UK Première)
Lydia KAVINA (theremin, composer)
Alexander KARPEYEV (piano)
Russian-born and based in the UK for the last 12 years, Lydia Kavina is currently one of the leading performing musicians on theremin. She studied the theremin under the direction of the inventor Léon Theremin, who was her distant relative. Lydia also studied piano and holds a degree in music theory and composition from the Moscow Conservatory.
As a solo performer Kavina has appeared in such projects as 4th Symphony by Ch.Ives, under Kent Nagano, (Hamburg and Zurich, 2018-2019), “The Film Music of Howard Shore” with Pittsburgh Symphony and Orquesta Sinfonica de Tenerife (2016), “The Sound of Hitchcock” with the BBC SSO in Glasgow in 2015, “Tim Burton and Danny Elfman’s show” with BBC Concert Orchestra and London Symphony at London Royal Albert Hall and in the UK tour 2013-2014, “Testament” by Nicolai Obouhov with Netherlands Radio Orchestra under Reinbert de Lewes in 2006, First Symphony by Lera Auerbach with Duesseldorf Philharminica in 2006 , “Jeanne d'Arc au Bucher” by Arthur Honegger with National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia under Vladimir Spivakov in 2005, Big Theremin concert with Orchestra SOSPESSO at New York Lincoln Center Festival in 2000.
Lydia worked for many theatre productions, among them: ballet “The Little Mermaid” by Lera Auerbach and John Neumeier, in Copenhagen, Hamburg and Beijing (2005-2018), music drama “The Tragedy of a Friendship” by Moritz Eggert and Jan Fabre, dedicated to R. Wagner’s anniversary (Gent, 2013), opera “Baehlamms Fest” by Olga Neuwirth in Vienna, Hamburg and Luzern (1999-2002), musicals “Alice” and “Black Rider” by Tom Waits and Robert Wilson in Hamburg and Cologne (1992-1998).
Mrs. Kavina recorded several CDs with original music for theremin with labels MODE records, WERGO, Solnze records and Teleura, and she played for a number of film soundtracks, including “Ed Wood” and “eXistetnZ” with music by Howard Shore and ''The Machinist'' by Roque Banos. She also played the role of the theremin performer in film “Me and Kaminsky” by Wolfgang Becker.
Lydia is an active promoter of new experimental music for the theremin and she is a composer herself. Kavina‘s Concerto for theremin and symphony orchestra was first performed by the Boston Modern Orchestra, under Gil Rose in 1997. Her most recent concert project is "100 years of electronic music" with Gabriel Prokofiev, premiered in London, June 2019
Mrs. Kavina is strongly committed to the educational activities. Her video tutorial “Mastering the Theremin”, recorded with Moog Music in 1994, is widely used among beginning therminists. Lydia is the regular master teacher at the Theremin Academy sessions in Oxford Music Faculty, as well as in Lausanne, Switzerland and Lippstadt, Germany. She also led several UK Theremin Festivals: in London Southbank Centre, 2009, Scarborough, 2011, Oxfordshire, 2013, London Greenwood Theatre of Kings College in 2016, as well as other theremin festivals in Europa and both American continents.
Featured as ‘One to watch’ in International Piano magazine, Alexander Karpeyev is a Russian pianist resident in the UK, who has performed throughout the UK and Europe and toured in the USA, Canada and Russia as a concerto soloist, recitalist and chamber musician.
Karpeyev trained at the Moscow Conservatory with Vera Gornostayeva and Alexander Mndoyants and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama under Joan Havill. He is the winner of the Dudley International Piano Competition as well as the Norah Sande Award and the holder of a Silver Medal from the Worshipful Company of Musicians. In 2014 he completed a performance practice doctoral degree at the City University, based on the Edna Iles Medtner Collection at the British Library. Karpeyev is often asked to give masterclasses and lectures on Russian performing practice.
‘Sasha’ is passionate about communicating his ideas on Romantic 19th and early 20th-century piano repertoire, and in particular exploring the works of virtuoso pianist-composers. A Medtner specialist, he became deeply immersed in Medtner’s music and approach to music-making while working on his doctoral degree, and his contact with unique performing practice evidence informs his own playing. He recently gave the Algerian premiere of Chopins’ F minor Concerto with the Algerian National Opera Orchestra under Maestro Amine Kouider.
He devotes considerable time to promoting Russian music in London as the Music Curator of the Pushkin House Music Salon in Bloomsbury, where he appears both as a soloist and collaborator with guest artists. He also has a mission to devise and direct music festivals that imaginatively combine performance and scholarship. Building on the success of three recent Medtner festivals in London, Karpeyev aspires to mount a bigger annual Russian Music Festival in London.
As well as performing and speaking about music, Karpeyev is actively engaged in recording projects. The first, entitled ‘Russian Émigré Composers’ (Claudio Records, 2018), commemorates the centenary of the Russian Revolution and, in particular, highlights some of the achievements of the pianist composers who emigrated to Europe and the USA at that time. The second is a recording of ‘Composers at the Savile Club‘ (SOMM Recordings, 2019). The recording celebrates the 150th anniversary of the founding of the London club. Among those featured are Elgar, Parry, Stanford, Howells and Walton. In addition to works for solo piano, the recording includes trumpet fanfares by Savile Club recent and current members Sir Malcolm Arnold and Julian Anderson. The recording was at the top of Spotify, Apple Music and Primephonic releases in August 2019. The latest project is a CD of Medtner Songs, Opp. 36-7, 45-6, recorded with the Russian soprano Sofia Fomina (2019), offering the first complete version of Opp. 36 and 46, with Russian texts by Pushkin, Tyutchev and Fet, and German texts by Goethe, Eichendorff and Chamisso; it will be released by Chandos in 2021.
Karpeyev remains deeply grateful for the support of the Stiftung Lyra (Zürich), Guildhall School Trust, Martin Musical Scholarship Fund, Hattori Foundation, Leverhulme Trust, Craxton Memorial Trust, English Speaking Union, Fidelio Charitable Trust, Solti Foundation, Nicholas Boas Charitable Trust, Jaques Samuel Pianos, his family and numerous anonymous donors.
TICKETS
11AM WORKSHOP
1PM WORKSHOP - more tickets released!
CONCERT (WITHOUT WORKSHOP)
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