Press Release (english) (russian)
15th Festival took place in St. Petersburg and Moscow in four parts: Young Composers Workshop, Concerts with Historic Commentary, Young Writers Workshops, and Young Actors Workshops. More than two hundred people participated in the Festival, and more than twenty events took place over the period of sixteen days, from May 12 to 28, 2009.
We were welcomed by three new organizations: on May 15th the US Consulate General hosted a reception in honor of our young composers, on May 21st the Israeli Embassy in Russia sponsored an evening dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust, and on May 23rd the Moscow State Conservatory provided a venue for our premiere of Boston composer, Ruth Lomon’s Oratory “Testimony of Witnesses.”
In addition to our long-standing relationship with the St. Petersburg Conservatory, we established exciting new collaborations with the Moscow Pedagogical State University Choir under the direction of Maestro Alexander Soloviev, the Moscow Children’s Chorus Studio, “Joy,” under the direction of Tatyana Zhdanova, the Children’s Studio of the St. Petersburg Musical Theater “Zazerkalie” under the direction of Alexander Petrov, the St. Petersburg Theater Academy under Svetlana Ivanovna Melnikova, and the St. Petersburg “Theater of Generations” under Danila Korogodskiy.
The Festival’s highlights included the following events:
EDUCATIONAL BRIDGE PROJECT 15th FESTIVAL SPRING 2009 – SELECTED EVENTS
Tuesday, May 12
7 p.m. Ludmilla Leibman arrived in St. Petersburg from Boston to open the 15th festival and hosted a dinner for nine young composers at the “Warmth” restaurant in the courtyard of the Composers’ Association Hotel
Wednesday, May 13
10 a.m. – St. Petersburg Central Radio Station. Interview with the participants of the “Young Composers Exchange” by Elena Kiyko, the Chief of the Radio’s Cultural Programs followed later that evening by Young Composers Exchange Concert at the Sheremetiev Palace
Concert Program
Thursday, May 14
1 p.m. Topics for Discussion by the composеrs – Day One
Matt Van Brink (Boston)
“How composers deal with rewriting and revising their compositions after the first performance since there is no 'workshop' culture in classical concert music as there is in opera or in the theater”
Olga Bochikhina (Moscow)
“Space in Contemporary Music: How our perception of space influences our musical thinking and by which means it is possible to achieve spatial dimensions in music”
Svetlana Nesterova (St. Petersburg)
“The Problem: Composer-Performer-Listener”
7 p.m. Young Composers Exchange Concert at the St. Petersburg Conservatory
Concert Program
Friday, May 15
1 p.m. Topics for Discussion by the composеrs – Day Two
Ramon Castillo (Boston)
“Unusual (non-traditional) Ensemble: A century of Alternative Instrumentation, Origins & Evolution”
Vladimir Gorlinsky (Moscow)
“Sound Objects and New Performance Techniques”
Nikolay Mazhara (St. Petersburg)
“Features of the Concerto Genre in Our Times.”
7 p.m. Reception and Concert at the US Consulate General in St. Petersburg
Concert Program
Saturday, May 16
11:30 a.m. All nine composers attended the premieres of Svetlana Nesterova’s opera “Litigation” and Viacheslav Kruglik’s (Svetlana’s husband) opera “Carriage” at the Mariinksy Theater; both operas are based on Gogol’s short stories followed by party for all young composers hosted by Svetlana Nesterova and Viacheslav Kruglik
Sunday, May 17
12 noon. Sight-seeing tours of the Hermitage Museum and St. Isaac Cathedral
Monday, May 18
1 p.m. Topics for Discussion by the composеrs – Day Three
Nikolay Khrust (Moscow)
“About Spiders and Octopuses” – The Composer’s Observation on Today’s Musical Forms
Anton Tanonov (St. Petersburg)
“Collaboration of Composer and HiTech”
10 p.m. – Champagne Boat Tour on the rivers and canals of St. Petersburg during the White Nights
Thursday, May 21
7 p.m. House of Actors: Samantha Gelfon’s multi-media presentation on Creative Activities of the Terezin Children with theperformance of the opera “Brundibar” by the children’s studio of Zazerkalie Theater
10 p.m. Opening night of the festival,“Stars of White Nights” –Valery Gergiev conducts Mahler’s Eighth Symphony in the Mariinsky Theater Concert Hall
Friday, May 22
5 p.m. Young Writers Workshop by Daphne Kalotay for 25 students of the St. Petersburg University
Saturday, May 23
7 p.m. –Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory: Ruth Lomon, Two choruses from the Oratorio Testimony of Witnesses - “Borah Ad Ana” and “Chor der Waisen.” Performers: Choir of the Moscow Pedagogical Academy, conductor Alexander Soloviev. Flute and Tam-Tam – soloists from the Moscow Conservatory Ensemble, Studio New Music
Sunday, May 24
4 p.m. Ludmilla Leibman’s talk at the Moscow Conservatory Conference Hall: “Educational Bridge Project – Russian-American Collaboration in the areas of Culture and Education” followed by dinner “At the Nikitskiy Gates” in honor of Ruth Lomon’s Russian premiere
Monday, May 25
12 noon – Venus Luong’s multi-media presentation for 60 middle-school students at the Children’s Library of the St. Petersburg Frunzenski district, on Kulturbund. Young St. Petersburg musicians participated in recreating the musical program of the April, 1938, Kulturbund concert in the West End Frankfurt Synagogue
Tuesday, May 26
3:30 p.m. Guila Kessous’s Young Actors Workshop for 35 students at the Theater Academy
Wednesday, May 27 - St. Petersburg 306th Birthday!
1 p.m. Hermitage Museum tour followed by the concert “Different Trains.” Pre-concert talk by Ludmilla Leibman; musicians of the Museum’s orchestra “Academia” played the music of the Terezin composers and Steve Reich
Thursday, May 28
11 a.m. The Educational Bridge Project’s 15th festival concludes with Guila Kessous’s Young Actors Workshop at the Generations Theater
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