With Franz Liszt giving the first master class in history (except possibly for Giuseppe Tartini who taught Magdalena Sirmen) a tradition of visiting outstanding teachers from the far-off lands on music learning trips was born. How could it possibly be the other way round after all? Having attended just a couple of such lessons, one can get valuable comments from a wise professor, refine performance techniques (that could otherwise require years in conservatory) and receive insights that would help one out with all sorts of difficulties occurring when it comes to translation from composer’s language to that of a performer. This is the reason why it is worth going to Malta Classic Music Academy where the world-famous pedagogical geniuses will start teaching several specialties at once, including piano, strings and brass (even saxophone!).
The TASS has talked to the President of the European Foundation for the Support of Culture and the founder of Malta Classic Music Academy about this ambitious project.
– Konstantin, this April will see you holding the InClassica International Music Festival, and the mere list of star names is breathtaking. In parallel to that, you are opening Malta Classic Music Academy, which seems to be bringing together the world’s best music educators. How did you manage it?
– When InClassica festival was born ten years ago, the Music Academy emerged in parallel to it. At first it was all just about master classes by experienced teachers coming from the world’s leading conservatories. Malta cannot boast of the high teaching standards when it comes to musical disciplines: there is no professional higher educational institution of the kind in Malta, but there are so many talented children here – that’s why our endeavor was a huge success.
Within these master classes, we held concerts in which students took part alongside with their professors, which was a kind of innovative for Malta. This was happening year after year, and year after year a lot of students were coming to us from all over the world, as did the teachers of whom one could generally only dream of in other circumstances. For example, Pavel Gililov: it is nigh impossible to get through to him in Mozarteum in Salzburg, since the number of applicants exceeds the number of seats by hundreds of times. So, when he was with us, many took advantage of this opportunity, including students from Austria proper. By the way, students were literally fighting each other for the right to attend Gililov’s classes at ClaviCologne (which is yet another competition and festival of ours), but the professor’s answer to them was that he could not give more than eight lessons a day.
– We had a talk with Pavel Lvovich recently, and I confessed that I envy his students. His thoughts about music are amazing.
– And now he’s on the jury of our Classic Piano competition, that is, “14 Routes to Malta” grand finale. Pavel Gililov will join other teachers in the Academy and give several master classes, since there are pauses between the rounds. Dmitry Alekseev and Michelle Beroff are also on the jury and giving their master classes. Well, now that we’re talking about piano teachers, Rudolf Buchbinder, who is also to perform at the InClassica festival itself, Peter Donohoe, Bernd Goetzke and Mikhail Khokhlov are also among them, as well as many other famous pianists and teachers.
–Do they all choose their students at will?
– We have it like this: when submitting an application, a student chooses the professor whose master class interests him or her most. If too many people are applying for a certain professor’s master class though, then it is up to this professor to choose whom to admit. In such case, students have to send him their audio recordings before he makes his final decision.
– Speaking of other specialties, here too these are not just common teachers that you’ve invited, but top-class professionals: Zakhar Bron, Boris Kushnir and other outstanding violin pedagogues…
– Don’t forget to mention Anna Chumachenko.
– Oh, sure, I was lucky to listen to her student Lisa Batiashvili’s performance a couple of years ago: a truly outstanding artist she is, there is absolutely no doubt about that.
– Yes, Lisa is a very talented musician indeed. She studied with Anna in Munich. And now, professor Anna Chumachenko is ready to share the secrets of her mastery with the students of the Academy here, in Malta. By the way, Daniel Hope and Maxim Vengerov are among our violin teachers too and will give their master classes as well.
– What do you associate the word “academy”with?
– To me it means “music high school”. We used to call it just master classes previously, because piano only, violin only or vocals only were the subjects that were taught here. But now we have it all combined. Add a huge number of concerts – both those at which professors perform together with the students and those at which students share the stage with the guest stars within the framework of our InClassica festival – not to forget about the lectures given by famous musicians who are also to perform at the festival concerts… Therefore we had the courage to take a shot at the word “academy”, as magnificent as it is. Diverse disciplines, concerts, lectures – all this together and at one and the same time. The strings will include violin, cello; the brass – flute, oboe, clarinet and saxophone. It was very important to me to select the teaching staff in such a way as to arouse interest not only among local students, but among the musicians from abroad as well.
– You have definitely succeeded in doing so. And on top of it all, concerts, classes, lectures and other wonderful things will take place on the sweet little island of Malta, and that’s a pleasure in itself.
– That is true. What are the advantages of Malta? Certainly, the climate that allows you to bathe in the sea and enjoy the sun: even during the springtime. Add the numerous Maltese attractions. Malta is a very interesting place because of its history and architecture. It should also be remembered that Malta is home to the well-recognized European school of English. Therefore, everyone who is going to attend our concerts and master classes can also improve his or her English language skill.
– So, where the classes will be held?
– The Sacra Infermeria - one of the oldest buildings in Europe dating back to the 16th century that currently hosts the Mediterranean Conference Center – serves as the main concert hall of our festival. Initially it was founded by the Knights of St. John as a hospital, and the sickbed niches are still there in the foyer, as are the statues of knights in full battle armor in the corridors. A huge number of master classes will be held here. All the rest will take place on the campus of the University of Malta, at the Catholic University, and so on, all these halls being also located in the Maltese capital of Valetta.
–Let’s move on to the lecture program offered by the Academy. When I first came across Bernstein’s “Norton Lectures”, many musical secrets opened up before me. I can imagine well, what a bunch of discoveries could be made by those attending the lectures by Martha Argerich…
– I’m looking forward to these myself. By the way, besides Martha, there will be other star lecturers at the InClassica festival, namely, Rudolf Buchbinder, Stella Chen, Daniel Hope. Not to forget about Severin von Eckardstein who is a wonderful German pianist and the winner of the Queen Elizabeth Competition, and, of course, Keith Armstrong – a multitalented US musician now living in Vienna, who is a pianist, an organist, an orchestra conductor, a composer, a mathematician and, first and foremost, Alfred Brendel’s former student. So, we get the chance to learn a whole lot of things about performing, about our times, and probably about ourselves as well. The schedule also includes open master classes with participation from the audience, pandemic conditions permitting, of course. One way or another, we will adhere to all the restrictions, for sure. In any case, we have thought through some alternatives, including online streaming. But, after all, let us keep a positive attitude.
– Yet another know-how of yours: students will have an opportunity to perform with symphony and chamber orchestras. That is, you invite six more orchestras in addition to those eight that are to perform at the festival?
– That’s right, we invite chamber and symphony orchestras specifically for the Academy’s concerts, since we are planning for a special series of concerts with their participation. Students will share the stage with famous musicians here. These orchestras are conducted by outstanding maestros, like. For example, Felix Korobov, the chief conductor of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre, who has been conducting the Moscow Chamber Orchestra for the last 15 years and engaging with La Scala since 2017.
Also among those to take the stage are: Marius Stravinsky, the guest conductor of the Deutsche Oper and the Staatskapelle Berlin; Valery Vorona, Rector of the Ippolitov-Ivanov State Music Pedagogical Institute; Mikhail Kirchhoff, the chief conductor of the Moscow Youth Symphony Orchestra; composer Arkady Feldman, the founder and the chief conductor of the Kaliningrad Symphony Orchestra; Alexey Nyaga, the conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of the Karelia State Philharmonic and the Samara Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre; Valid Agayev, the artistic director and conductor of the Attendorn Chamber Orchestra (Germany); guest conductor of the Orquesta Clásica Santa Cecilia, Director of Oxford Festival of the Arts, Director of the “Giacomo Puccini” Conservatory in La Spezia Giuseppe Bruno; and finally, Michael Laus, the Resident Conductor of the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra.
– They will “share the stage”, you said. You mean, students and professors will perform together?
– No, celebrities will perform first, while students will be watching experienced musicians interacting with an orchestra and its conductor. The students will begin learning some things in the very process of watching and listening to such performances. Having performed his or her program, a famous musician will then give the stage to a student of the Academy, and the latter would have a lasting impression of this, I think.
– So, how can one become a student at the Academy? Is it still possible to apply, or are all the seats already taken?
– It is still possible to apply, thanks to the large number of professors who agreed to teach at the Academy. Classes will be held in three stages: each training session is to last for eight days, involving a minimum of 200 students. Admission to the course requires filling out an online application form. But participating in open master classes as a student is a different story: in order to do so, one has to submit an additional application and pass a rigorous selection procedure with a special commission. Mayhap, the maestro who gives open master classes will be the one to choose whom to teach. All the Academy’s daytime concerts will be recorded; each student will get a recording of the concert he took part in, as well as a respective graduate certificate.
– Are you going to keep track of the graduates of the Academy and their careers?
– Of course, we will be keeping track of the best students, we will be inspiring them to participate in our festival concerts and our master classes. I would also like to note that professors get to know young musicians after such master classes and try to take care of them somehow afterwards. Pavel Gililov had more than once flagged students here at our master classes, who later succeeded in getting into Mozarteum.
– Which of the soloists will perform at the “academic” concerts?
– Davide Alonya, Boris Andrianov, Alena Baeva, Maria Solozobova, Nikita Boriso-Glebsky, Haik Kazazyan, Vadim Kholodenko, Philipp Kopachevsky, Giuliano Mazzoccante, Nikita Mndoyants; as well as Sergei Dogadin and David Aaron Carpenter, and many other great musicians who will also perform at the InClassica festival.
The framework of the Academy also embraces the concerts of young stars. Among them are: Elisey Mysin – a talented little pianist who gave a remarkable performance at the “Blue Bird” children’s contest; Teo Gertler, a violin virtuoso from Slovakia and the winner of “The Nutcracker” and several international contests; “Eurovision Young Musicians” winner and two-times Grand Piano Competition winner Ivan Bessonov; Chinese violinist Paloma So, who won the second prize at the International Wieniawski Competition; Ivaylo Vassilev, a pianist from Sofia, Bulgaria, who already has about 30 international prizes and awards, including “Liszt-Bartok”, “Schumann-Brahms”, “La Note Celeste” and “The Nutcracker”.
– You have become the only foreigner to be granted the highest national award for the “Exceptional Contribution to the Cultural Life of Malta”. Also, you were honored with a medal for your contribution to the development of musical culture in Russia just over a year ago. Does it all have something to do with the establishment of the Academy?
– No, it is all in relation to other projects. Our foundation holds many festivals, competitions and concerts all around the world, not to mention special projects like “Shutovskaya wedding” Ice Show staged by Ilya Averbukh (this one becoming the first ice show in Malta’s history), Alexey Shor’s ballet “Crystal Palace”, Russia-US tour of the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, etc.
– This year’s Malta Classic Music Academy will coincide with the anniversary 10-th edition of the InClassica International Music Festival. This is probably not by chance, isn’t it?
– Definitely not by chance. I wish there were a lot of people who live by music these spring days in Malta.