Concert pianist and teacher at Juilliard’s Pre-College division for piano and chamber music, Victoria Mushkatkol, will share her musical insights with an audience that will include, according to her, the most adoring, but tough audience members: “It is always important to play at Juilliard for audiences of your colleagues and students who you work with every day and they are the most loving {yet} the most severe judges.”
The program will include the two latest works of Schumann (Fantasy Pieces op.111) and Beethoven (Sonata op.109) – which will allow for comparison between these artists’ more mature works. “As for any program I decide on, this is music I love and I keep the listener in mind while I come up with a selection presenting music to be enjoyed in its diversities of parallels and contrasts. As for this program, which will also include Schumann’s Fantasy in C major, Op. 17, this will present a much more youthful work, so to speak from ‘the other side’ of the composer’s life,” says Mushkatkol, who is herself a youthful, energetic performer with authorative experience.
Having made her debut with the Kiev Philharmonic at age ten, Mushkatkol has established a reputation as a talented soloist; the press has described her as: “blazing, vibrant and world-class.” She has also received accolades for her chamber music; Mushkatol is a sensitive and avid chamber musician, and has collaborated with a wide array of international artists including violinists Evgeny Bushkov, Julia Bushkova, and Charles Casselman, as well as cellists Karen Buranskas and André Emelianoff.
A protégée of one of Russia’s eminent music educators, Vladimir Nielsen at the St.Petersburg Conservatory, Mushkatkol has made it a mission to continue her teacher’s legacy. In 2007, she became the founder and artistic director of the Vladimir Nielsen Piano Festival in Sag Harbor, New York.
In her teaching, Mushkatkol bases a great deal of her style on the inspiration she gained from Nielsen. “In his teaching, he inspired students to search reverently for the most truthful expression of the composer’s intentions by means of articulation, inflection, and sophisticated rhythmical, motivic, and harmonic relationships. His credo was: you must stand on your knees before the composer.”
Mushkatkol feels that this seemingly subordinate approach actually enhances the solid foundation for individual creativity. Nielsen’s credo: “Music comes first, Instrument- second” has brought many professional musicians to seek his tutelage, from prominent conductors to pianists. Nielsen promoted the human connection to musical performance: “When you play the piano, you have nowhere to hide. Musical talent is the ability to speak, so that people listen to you. WHAT you have to say is who you are.”
Mushkatkol has recently been invited to return to Russia for performances and master classes. She was also featured as a guest performer at the Festival International Conservatory week in St. Petersburg, and has expanded her artistic presence to Beijing and Shanghai.#ViktoriaMushkatkol #VladimirNielsen