Announcement

Concert of young talents

On 23 April, talented students of the Gnesin Moscow Secondary Special Music School (class of the Honored Worker of Culture of the Russian Federation E.Berezkina) will perform in the Cultural Centre "Mir". We have talked to Director of the Dubna Symphony Orchestra N.A.Kastro, on whose initiative this concert will be held.

Natalya Aleksandrovna, when children are on stage, this is a special mood of the concert. What feelings do you personally experience?

- Breathing is laboured, a "lump" in the throat ... The children are very honest on stage and infinitely sincere. Sometimes, they do their best and it is beyond touching! As a rule, I am delighted that these young creatures already know how to do fantastic things and not only in terms of instrumental techniques, but also in understanding, awareness what they are performing!

I feel the deepest admiration for the teacher that puts Art into the hands and head of the child. I know firsthand, having taught children for over 30 years, what hard work lies behind each performance, each exam, each competition! But listening to the little star pupils of Elena Berezkina, you absolutely do not feel that there is a titanic labour behind the children, they play so naturally and easily, as if this gift came down to them from Heaven. But no! It is a God-gift of Elena Vladimirovna, combining the highest level of professionalism with the talent of a Musician, a teacher, a psychologist, a producer, an educator, an assistant and a great friend! Believe me, you can't make a child work productively, devote many hours to music, if you don't inspire him, don't let him believe in his own success, don't let him understand how invaluable a teacher's help is!!

By organizing a concert specifically for children, you give them the opportunity to go on the big stage, to get to know new emotions that come only from performing, teach them to communicate with the audience. What does a concert for young talents mean to you personally?

- After the concert "Virtuoso" recently held in the Cultural Centre "Mir", as always, we talked to Sergey Pospelov that was also a child prodigy and from an early age has performed on the big stage and played accompanied by symphony orchestras. Today, his schedule is extremely busy and when asked how he could possibly manage it all, he said: "but that's how I have been brought up and trained since childhood" - no indulgences, no excuses, you always have to be ready to perform, feel the audience, share energy with the audience, give people the highest emotions. Yes, indeed, this profession is laid only from childhood! And the stage is also a colossal training! You can, for example, prepare for a year, study 24 hours a day and seemingly learn a composition for all 100 but when you go on stage, you lose all your skills and not get the result you strive for! A stage, a public performance - there are so many distracting factors, psychological, neuro-psychological, objective, subjective ... And only performances, over and over again, as much and more often as possible, give that degree of freedom when the artist can cut off all extra emotions and thoughts and fully immerse into the performance! Therefore, Elena Vladimirovna does her best to make her stars perform as often as possible and we are always happy to have the opportunity to invite her class to perform on the stage of the Cultural Centre "Mir" and perform programmes on the Steinway piano.

Can it be assumed that you, one way or another, nurture great musicians?

- I dare say, yes! Each concert for any musician is a new experience, a step forward. And for a young performer, a concert on a big stage, where the public buys tickets, is also an enormous responsibility, along with a sense of pride for the trust that the organizers, conductor, orchestra and teacher have put in you! Yes, we do trust young musicians to go on the big stage to show their talent, to gain more experience, to grow as individuals, to grow as musicians, to ignite this intoxicating state of success when you want to go on stage again and again...

Please, tell us about the Gnesins Moscow Secondary Special Music School. Why is it the mark of quality of music teaching?

- Yes, Gnesinka is the highest standard of the Russian Instrumental School! This standard has been set initially, because the School was founded by a unique personality, a great musician Elena Fabianovna Gnesina, among the dearest friends with whom Elena studied at the conservatory were S.V.Rachmaninov and A.N.Skryabin. To this day, not everyone can be accepted into the ranks of Gnesinka students; it is not for nothing that it is called a "school for gifted children", "the future musical elite". Even if a child is accepted into this famous school, talent alone is not enough! Three of my graduates were admitted into the senior classes of the Gnesin Ten-Year School and it was a colossal preliminary training and then a huge responsibility to see how the children could develop in accordance with the highest professional requirements. After all, leading Russian teachers work with children there, including professors of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory and the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music, Honored Artists of the Russian Federation, People's and Honored Artists of Russia, Honored Workers of Culture, Doctors and Candidates of Art History. And it is a great happiness and good luck to become pupils of such teachers!

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And we, for our part, are happy to introduce to the Dubna audience the young talents, that have the opportunity to feel like artists, to demonstrate their uniqueness and skill and possibly, to motivate their peers, those in the audience, to start playing the instrument, to feel the music, to hear it through a child's perception, but masterfully formed by their own understanding of beauty!

The concert will be held on 23 April at 17:00 PM in the Cultural Centre "Mir".

Interviewed by Eleonora YAMALEEVA, Member of the Union of Theater Workers of the Russian Federation,
photo from the personal archive of N.A.Kastro