Elisaveta Blumina, piano will join Elizabeth Cooney, violin to perform Valentyn Silvestrov’s piano and violin works including a world premiere of 5 new pieces for violin and piano on 24 September 2009 in St.Peters COI Drogheda.
Programme
Songs without words to B. Pivnenko
1.Elegy
2.Barcarolle
3.Musical Moment
Three pieces for Helle Mustonen
1. Lullaby
2. Barcarolle
3. Lullaby
25.X.1893 in memory of P. Tchaikovsky
1. Prelude
2. Lullaby
3. Serenade
5 new pieces for piano and violin ( World Premiere)
Elisaveta Blumina piano
Pianist Elisaveta Blumina has established herself across Europe as an eminent soloist, enthusiastic teacher, and chamber musican of exceptional qualities. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, Ms. Blumina began studying piano at the Conservatoire “Rimsky-Korsakov” in Leningrad. She made her highly acclaimed solo debut at the age of sixteen with the first piano concerto by Brahms, accompanied by the Leningrad Symphony Orchestra directed by Alexander Polyanichko. Elisaveta Blumina grew up in the great tradition of the Russian piano school. Later, she has been studying at the University of Music and Theater in Hamburg and at the Conservatoire in Berne. Among her teachers are Mara Mednik, Evgeni Koroliov, Karl-Heinz Kämmerling, András Schiff and Bruno Canino. She took master classes with the Alban Berg Quartett, Radu Lupu, Ivry Gitlis, the Melos Quartett and Paul Badura Skoda. A very important figure for her personal and musical development has been Boris Pergamenshikov, who also invited her to perform in concerts of the “European Chamber Music Association”. Ms. Blumina has won the International Brahms Piano Competition and numerous other international piano competitions in Russia, Germany, Italy and Belgium. In addition, she has been awarded five times the prize of the best pianist, in particular at the Sarasate International Violin Competition (Spain) and at the Pfitzner International Voice Competition (Germany).
The pianist has raised her profile at many festivals, including the Schleswig-Holstein, the Carinthian Summer, Mecklenburg Vorpommern, Campos de Jordao, Verbier and Colmar festivals. She has performed in some of the world’s major concert halls such as the Berlin Philharmonie, the Laeisz-Halle in Hamburg, the Carnegie Recital Hall in New York, the Beethovenhalle in Bonn and the Conservatoire in Milan. Ms. Blumina has been guest soloist with the Dresden Philharmonic, the Moscow Virtuosi, the Sinfonia Varsovia, the Hamburg Philharmonic, the Philharmonc of Bonn, the Romanian State Orchestra, the Symphonic Orchestra of St. Petersburg, the Halle Philharmonic and others. She performed with conductors such as Yuri Temirkanov, Vladimir Spivakov, Gerd Albrecht, Andrey Boreyko and Daniel Raiskin. Television appearances and many radio recordings (NDR, ZDF, ORF, WDR, Radio de la Suisse Romande and Radio Nacional de España) have also contributed to her exceptional reputation. Various CD recordings (with Syrinx, Oehms-Classic, Harp-classics, La bottega discantica, Genuin Music Production, Charade, Es-Dur) illustrate her broad repertoire and have been well received by the international critique.
Elisaveta Blumina is a member of the “European Chamber Music Association”, and works regularly with the “Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben”. Her chamber music partners include Pierre Amoyal, Daniel Hope, the Artemis Quartett, the Vogler Quartett, Veronika Eberle, Hans-Udo Heinzmann, Eduard Brunner and Dmitri Makhtin. She performs regularly with Henrik Wiese (flute) and, in 2008, she has founded the “Ensemble Blumina”, together with Paulus van der Merwe (oboe) and Mathias Baier (bassoon).
Elisaveta Blumina is very interested in the rediscovery and performance of works by Jewish composers. For example, she is currently recording a CD with piano music by Mieczyslaw Weinberg, an important friend of Shostakovich’. Furthermore, she is trying to introduce school children to classical music, through her participation in concert series such as “Recitales para Jóvenes” organised by the Fundación Juan March in Madrid.
Elizabeth Cooney violin
A packed house for this concert……a glowing account of Dvorák’s slow movement by Cork-born soloist Elizabeth Cooney, who went on to make a fine showing of upbeat virtuosity in the finale Andrew Johnstone, Irish Times 18 Nov. 2008
Cooney displayed her unbelievable skills confirming the presence of a world class artist. Gerry Quinn, Irish Examiner 30 May 08
Elizabeth Cooney has recently performed Mozart’s first and Bruch’s violin concertos with the Ulster Orchestra and Dvorak’s Violin Concerto with the National Symphony Orchestra on tour. Also in the past year the West Cork Chamber Music Festival included a number of performances with distinguished international musicians. Her performance in Ian Wilson’s “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” with narration by Gavin Friday in the Brighton Festival, was repeated in the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris. In the Sans Souci trio she premiered works by Mark Anthony Turnage at the Canterbury Festival and with pianist Matthew Schellhorn gave the British premiere of Messiaen’s newly discovered Fantaisie for violin and piano with at the Jacqueline du Pre Music Building, Oxford. In the Music21 Series at the National Concert Hall Dublin she performed the premiere of Northern Irish composer Greg Caffrey’s work for solo violin, ‘Rigour, Vigour, Jigger’. Elizabeth founded the Syrius Trio in 2007 and their first season included a performance of an all Shostakovich programme in the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York. The Trio performed a work written for them by Benjamin Dwyer in the 08 Musica Nova Contemporary Music Festival in Brazil and they will play at the Mozart Bath Festival in ’09 as well as recording a CD of works by Solomon Jadassohn. Elizabeth’s highly successful duo with guitarist Redmond O’Toole will play in Irish festivals and concerts this summer. She plays a violin made in Venice in 1700 by Matteo Goffriller.
