“In the Beginning Were… Us”

Famous Japanese pianist Maki Sekiya to perform at the Vadim Sidur Museum

as part of the Festival Laboratory of New and Contemporary Music “In the Beginning Were… Us”

Vadim Sidur Museum, 37/2, Novogireevskaya str.

The idea of the festival was conceived by Russian composers Iraida Yusupova and Dilyara Gabitova and the London-based Japanese star of the international piano scene Maki Sekiya.

In avant-garde music circles, Iraida Yusupova is known as a major “new wave” composer touted in the booming reviews of the noughties as a top ten figure among Russian most prominent music authors. Blessed with a talent to build a circle of artistic soul mates around her, she has organized numerous theatre and music festivals.

The Festival Laboratory of New and Contemporary Music has a clear focus on exploring the archetypical features of art and music and on finding the common ground between them in what brings them together instead of putting apart.

The festival organizers are trying to reinstate the notion of avant-garde music in its original sense, defying the popular trend toward substituting it with narrow style features of the musical language developed along some existing composing traditions. Beyond an artistic friendship, the initiators have shared the deep commitment to the Russian and European cultural traditions and the diversity of aesthetic attitudes.

The coordinator of the program is Victoria Miroshnichenko.

12 March, 17.00

Nostalgia: Solo performance of pianist Maki Sekiya

On the first day of the festival, the international piano star will perform pieces by her most cherished Moscow and Tokyo composers, Sergei Pavlenko (1952-2012), Iraida Yusupova, Dilyara Gabitova, and Somei Satoh.

Maki Sekiya is a young pianist and a remarkable presence over the recent years. She combines classical music with avant-garde in an original manner. Sekiya was born in Tokyo and received musical education in Japan, the UK and Russia, where she studied in the classes of Prof. V. Gornostaeva and Prof. M. Olenev at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory.

She has received awards of several international piano competitions in Italy, Spain, Bulgaria, Georgia and Ukraine. In Russia, her performances were broadcast by Kultura and Russia Today TV channels and by Orpheus Radio and Kultura Radio. She has performed solo and chamber programs and featured as a soloist with many orchestras in Russia.

13 March, 17.00

Collective Composition Leman. Non–Stop

For the centenary of the birth of Albert Leman

This year marks the centenary of the birth of Prof. Albert Leman, an outstanding Russian and Soviet composer, a People’s Artist of the RSFSR, and a prominent teacher of music.

His teaching record spans generations of unique composers as his alumni. One of his major principles was the careful attitude to shaping the unique artistic identity in each of his students. Building on Leman’s profound schooling, his alumni have all maintained their unique artistic individuality.

The authors of the collective opus Leman. Non-Stop are a group of composers, alumni of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory from the class of Prof. Leman: Maral Yakshieva, Sergey Zagny, Igor Goldenberg, Olesya Rostovskaya, Anna Vetlugina, Anton Bukanov, Dilyara Gabitova, Dmitry Cheglakov.

The musicians tried to combine their original musical material with the music of their teacher. Each of their original parts begins with a common theme from Leman’s Absolute Music and continues the development into a new tune. Each episode runs for up to five minutes, and the total duration of the composition is approximately one hour.

Each of the composers will be performing his or her original part on the piano either accompanied by another instrument or voice or solo. These “expressions” will be tied together by a refraining link of electronic music by Dmitry Cheglakov created using the recordings of Albert Leman’s performances.

Tickets:

12 March,  17.00 – 400 rubles

13 March,  17.00 – 200 rubles

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