Svetlana Smolina, Yevgeny Subdin, Christopher O’Riley, Elmer Churampi Celebrate: Composer Alexander Scriabin

Description

Scriabin’s unrealized magnum opus, Mysterium, was to have been a week-long performance including music, scent, dance, and light in the foothills of the Himalaya Mountains that would bring bring about the dissolution of the world in bliss. Peter Halstead’s essays on music, The Himalaya Sessions, lightly evoke the Mysterium, and it is his and his wife Cathy’s hope that everyone who comes to hear music outdoors at Tippet Rise will experience a certain amount of happiness. Like Messiaen, Scriabin believed in synesthesia, where musical notes evoked the sensation of colors, or colors brought back certain notes or letters of the alphabet. Music similarly summons up indescribable emotions in all of us. To pin them down is almost to make them disappear, like Schrödinger’s cat. The Scriabin pieces featured during this concert will be discussed at length in our program guide, which will be distributed at our concerts. **Svetlana Smolina** Ms. Smolina will perform at Domo in both the iconic Scriabin and Messiaen concerts on July 9th and 16th, during which time she will be in residence at Tippet Rise. Both composers are closest to the revelatory sensibities which music can invoke, and no one is more suited to such epiphanies. Born in the Russian city of Nizhny-Novgorod, Ms. Smolina started to develop her craft at a very young age. “Music is the most amazing gift a human being can have, and I pour all my feelings into each piece I perform.” By the time she graduated from her city’s Balakirev Music College, where she studied under the direction of Natalia Fish, she had already won several prestigious piano competitions, performed with the Nizhny Novgorod Symphony, given numerous recitals, and starred in several international music festivals. Svetlana’s talent and early accomplishments earned her an invitation to study with the master pianist Alexander Toradze at his world-famous Indiana University piano studio. Ms. Smolina studied with Eugene and Olga Mogilevsky at the Brussels Royal Conservatory in Belgium. Later, she partnered with their son Maxim to win the Murray Dranoff International Two Piano Competition in Miami, a triumph which has been echoed many times in the distinguished prizes and awards she has received throughout her career. Despite her youth, Ms. Smolina has established herself as a virtuoso pianist, with a long list of notable performances and recordings. Among them are solo appearances with the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall; the Mariinsky Orchestra at Carnegie Hall; the St. Petersburg Philharmonic; La Orchestre National de France; the Odessa and Nizhny Novgorod Philharmonic; the Pittsburgh Symphony; the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra; the Toledo Symphony; the Florida Philharmonic; the Shreveport Symphony; the Chamber Orchestra of New York, and many others. She has performed on the world’s most prestigious stages, including the Royal Covent Garden Opera in London; the Mariinsky 3 Concert Hall in St. Petersburg; the Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory Hall; Mozarteum and Großen Saal in Salzburg; Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon; the Miller Theater at Columbia University in NYC, and Vienna’s Sacher Hall, to name just a few. Performing music time and again, while keeping it fresh and exciting for the audience, is an art in itself. “It helps that I am always open to new experiences and see life itself as an inspiration.” She is also a frequent participant at international music festivals, including the Salzburg Festival; the Hollywood Bowl Festival in Los Angeles; the Ravinia Rising Stars Festival in Chicago; the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg; Maggio Musicale in Florence; Settimane Musicali di Stresa; Festivale di Bologna; Michelangeli Festival in Brescia; the Hennessy Artists Series at Hanoi Opera House in Vietnam; iPalpiti Orchestra/ iPalpiti Festival of International Laureates / Disney Hall, and numerous others. In choosing her music, Ms. Smolina likes to select lesser-known pieces to surprise and excite the audience. All in all, both the selection process and the performance bring together “a lot of constructive thinking, emotional input, and spirituality,” she says. Ms. Smolina received her BM degree from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Oberlin, Ohio, where she studied under Monique Duphil; her M.M. from the College of Musical Arts at Bowling Green State University, and her doctorate from the University of Michigan, where she credits her teacher, Arthur Greene, for helping perfect her skills. She was appointed as the Samuel Barber Artist In Residence at West Chester University of Pennsylvania’s School of Music in The College of Visual and Performing Arts, and is also a member of the piano faculty at Philadelphia International Summer Festival. Her current projects include recording a solo album at Cove City Sound Studios; recording Martin Matalon works for Naxos; the soundtrack for the upcoming film You are Not You, starring Hilary Swank; and a tour of China with the Russian European Orchestra in 2014. In 2014-15, Ms. Smolina gave a series of concerts with Vadim Repin for his Trans -Siberian Art Festival at the residences of the Russian Ambassador in both Washington, DC and London. Their recent recital in Koerner Hall in Toronto received great critical acclaim. In 2014, Svetlana won the Live on Stage showcases and was chosen as their only Classical Pianist Artist for the 2015-16 season. This upcoming tour will bring her to more than 20 states. Svetlana recently was featured and gave an interview for Keyboard Magazine. Other collaborations include a series of concerts with Robert Davi and Dave Konig at Eisenhower Park, Harry Chapin Lakeside Theater presented by Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano. Svetlana will be a featured soloist on a tour with Dublin Philharmonic Orchestra in China in December 2015, with the South Florida Symphony and with the Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional Juvenil in Lima, Peru. **Elmer Churampi** Mr. Churampi will be the trumpet virtuoso in the Domo Scriabin homage. “When I was four, I took [my father’s] trumpet when he was taking a break, and I got a good sound.” Elmer Churampi told Christopher O’Riley on From the Top’s Show 268. “On that day, he told me that I was going to be a trumpet player.” From the moment Elmer picked up the trumpet, he began a journey to becoming one of the most impressive musicians in the history of From the Top. He moved everyone not only as a musician, but as a person. While growing up in Lima, Peru, music would be Elmer’s driving force. It would be his vehicle for self-expression, his ticket to success, and his calling in life. It would make him an inspiration to everyone he met. “My parents were poor, but with a big heart,” he said. “They always supported me in music, and in life.” As a child, Elmer’s musical talent caught the attention of many in his community. Their encouragement would soon be very important. One of Elmer’s most notable supporters was soccer player Nolberto Solano. When Nolberto noticed Elmer’s gift for music, he helped him acquire his first professional instrument.

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