Yesterday at the MECMA: Andrey Baranov Live in Concert

The MECMA yesterday welcomed world-renowned virtuoso violinist, Andrey Baranov, under the baton of Conrad Van Alphen, for a special daytime concert, which also included a programme of student works. Masterclasses of the Academy continued.

As part of the EUFSC and SAMIT’s efforts to promote high quality musical education, this year’s edition of InClassica is also incorporating the inaugural edition of the Middle East Classical Music Academy (MECMA), taking place from the 4th to the 23rd of September. This educational initiative features three weeks of lectures, discussions and masterclasses in the schools of piano, wind, and strings, led by a roster of international professors and music pedagogues consisting of some of the most illustrious names active today. In addition, the MECMA is also presenting a series of daytime concerts featuring soloists, orchestras, and prodigies from all around the world, with select Academy students being offered the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of joining these artists in live performance on stage.

Yesterday at MECMA

Masterclasses:

Violin masterclass • Pavel Vernikov
Violin masterclass • Svetlana Makarova
Violin masterclass • Graf Mourja

Quotes from Professors:

Graf Mourja
“All students are different. You just need to find an approach for everyone, reveal their manner, character. It is important not just to play, but to open up. Here they have a unique opportunity to learn skills from professors. Every day we see the best musicians, the best orchestras, the best conductors. You can take lessons from them. This is a very good experience."

"I am glad to be on the same stage with the magnificent Kaliningrad Symphony Orchestra. I am delighted to have such an energetic connection with the orchestra. We didn't have much time for rehearsals, but the mutual understanding between the conductor, the soloist and the orchestra was perfect. I am glad to participate, to have the opportunity to meet so many talented musicians in one place. This is a real music world, here in Dubai. Thank you for the invitation to Konstantin Ishkhanov. I'm glad to be here.”

Daytime concert: Violin Concerto

Andrey Baranov (violin)
“Everything is very interesting and exotic here in Dubai, and I am pleased to see my friends from Europe and Russia who are also performing concerts or masterclasses here. The European Foundation for Support of Culture is organising such a huge event here and at a difficult time — it is very impressive.”

“It is wonderful that the Foundation and the Academy have the opportunity to invite such specialists, professors, and do it all in such a festival format, where famous soloists from all over the world perform and students themselves go on stage with them, study, communicate and are in such a single musical community. I am sure that this will help in their development. I also see that there are excellent conditions for all of them - soloists, teachers, and students.”

“Today, for the first time, I performed Alexey Shor's “Four Seasons in Manhattan”. I had to play the music of Alexey Shor several times, but these were other violin concertos, and this composition is new for me. I was glad to get acquainted with such a popular theme in the violin repertoire, which was born a long time ago thanks to “The Four Seasons” by Vivaldi. Despite the fact that Vivaldi created a perfect masterpiece, every note in which is brilliant, it is wonderful that other composers undertake to write compositions on the same topic for the violin, which is natural, because the violin can transmit — apart from any human emotions — almost all the sounds of nature, especially together with a symphony orchestra. Therefore, if the composer has a certain skill, then an excellent result is obtained, as it happened with Alexey Shor.”

Conrad Van Alphen

Kaliningrad Symphony Orchestra

Academy students selected to participate in the concert:

Taichi Miyamoto (violin)
Simone Spadino Pippa (violin)

Students’ Programme:

P.Tchaikovsky - Violin Concerto in D Major
F. Mendelssohn - Violin Concerto in E Minor, 1st movement