Alexandre Moutouzkine - Cuban Idiom and Russian virtuosity
Sun, Feb 15
|Zinc Bar
As a performing artist he is always looking for that “intoxicating level of greatness, connecting with great art and with the meaning behind it…It is that energy, which comes from the music itself, these sounds that embody a message…as a performer you are in the ocean, with the movement of the music
Time & Location
Feb 15, 2015, 7:00 PM
Zinc Bar, 82 W 3rd St, New York, NY 10012, USA
About the Event
In 1995, Moutouzkine left his native Russia for Hannover’s reputable Hochschule für Musik until, according to the artist, “something really important” happened in his life. Solomon Mikowsky, the old school pedagogue at Manhattan School of Music heard him perform, and convinced by his talent and personality, secured him a place as his pupil in 2001. “He was definitely the most transforming influence for me,” says Moutouzkine. He (Mikowsky) was also the one, revealing the ingredients of Cuban, and South American music to me, which had never been part of my vocabulary before. “Music,” he describes, “that holds at the core something ethereal, with incredible traditions and sonorities.” As pedagogue at his Alma Mata, Moutouzkine’s goal is to continue to inspire his students and help them to develop both pianistically, and as performers.
“I always tell my students that this whole way of getting superficial attention via social networks etc. does take a lot of time and energy, which might be better spent where it really counts – with the music.” He is more open- minded about participating in audience-friendly projects, as long as there is substance to build on: He opened Astral Artist’s 2012/13 season with a concert including a commissioned animation, entitled 'Who stole the Mona Lisa,' accompanied live by Moutouzkine, performing his own transcription of Stravinsky’s Firebird.