I hope 2015 will be a prosperous and healthy year for all my FB friends with many happy moments to remember. I finally had a moment to look back at 2014 in an attempt to understand what this year meant to me. I wish to share these thoughts and memories with you. Thank you for being part of my life, believing in my work and making it possible for me to transform many dreams into reality. 2014 was a difficult year for me, but good, creative and generous in all aspects that matter most. It was the first year of living in a new home away from big cities, and building the best living conditions – hermitdom – a place of nature and free from distractions, where I can maximize the time I have to write, think and create. More and more I realize the importance of protecting solitary time and concentrating on the essentials. I began to say “no” to many interesting projects and concerts this year, hoping to expand the time which I can spend creating new works. Sacrifices were unavoidable and included not attending some of the premiere performances of several of my works, but as a result, I have done the best I could creatively and am a bit closer to achieving a better overall balance in my life. What makes me especially happy this year is that slowly, very slowly, the balance between the literature, music and visual art has been, if not fully restored, at least on the way to being restored. For some years, music entirely devoured everything else in my life and it took great effort to balance it better with literature and visual art. The two largest and most time-consuming projects of 2014 were: 1) Composing “Tatiana” - a full-length ballet based on Pushkin’s “Evgeny Onegin.” It is 2.5 hours of orchestral music - the equivalent of four symphonies and just as challenging to create. This ballet was a co-commission between the Hamburg State Ballet and Stanislavsky Ballet in Moscow. 2) Completing “Excess of Being” - a 500-page book in English, which will be published in March 2015. On January 19, 2015, it will already be available in Kindle format and as a limited hard-cover edition. I have written three volumes of poetry in Russian, but this is my first book written originally in English. In addition, this year I created over 100 paintings on rusted metal, directly related to the book. These paintings form an independent exhibition and are reproduced in full color in the book. Below are some of my personal highlights from 2014. Of course, these are not all performances and everything that happened, it would be impossible to mention all in this note. I am most grateful to all of the performers, readers, presenters, choreographers, conductors, and others, who have been involved in my works world-wide. If you have performed my music and are not mentioned in this note – please forgive me, this is just a brief recollection of what occupied most of my attention this past year. January 2014 – Finished the score of a large work for cello and chamber ensemble, titled “Dreammusic.” – Traveled to Hamburg to attend performances of my ballet “The Little Mermaid” and to meet with choreographer John Neumeier to work on “Tatiana.” – In late January, traveled to Davos, Switzerland, for the Annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, where I presented a plennary on creativity and took part in several events. While there, during an event hosted by Sandy Climan, I enjoyed a spontaneous improvisation with Zöe Kitting and Peter Gabriel. February 2014 – On February 21st was the world premiere of the ballet “Grace Symmetry” by Medhi Walerski with Ballet BC Vancouver with my music. – Feb. 26 - Mar. 2, the ballet “Watch Her” by Azure Barton was performed in Toronto. This ballet is based on my “Dialogues on Stabat Mater. – Feb. 22 - 25, Terrence Kohler’ ballet “Heroes”, with music by Alfred Schnittke and me, was performed in Munich at the Munich Opera. (Unfortunately, I did not have a chance to attend any of these three productions, as I was fully concentrating on writing “Tatiana.”) March 2014 – The first week of March I spent in California for the rehearsals and world premiere of “Dreammusik” for cello and chamber ensemble. The work was performed by my friend and a wonderful cellist Ani Aznavoorian and Camerata Pacifica. Also, one of my paintings was auctioned and sold to support this wonderful ensemble who does so much for new music. – Terrence Kohler’s ballet “Heroes” continued performances in Munich. – March had one more world premiere - at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe – choreographer Reginaldo Oliveira used my music for his new ballet “Der Fall M.” as part of the Mythos trilogy. – On March 29th was the Finnish premiere of my Gallows Songs for womens choir and saxophone quartet – at the Helsinki Music Center as part of Philomela’s 30th anniversary. Philomela was one of the several choirs who co-commissioned this work. I wrote this work for the wonderful Rascher Saxophone Quartet. April 2014 – First week of April I spent in Columbus, OH performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto in D minor (with my cadenzas) – with ProMusica Chamber and David Danzymayr. Also, one of my paintings was auctioned and sold to support this orchestra. – Both ballets “Heroes” and “Der Fall M.” were performed. I am not going to mention these two ballets here any more, but both ballets were performed throughout the remaining of the year and “The Little Mermaid” toured China with the National Ballet of China. May 2014 – May 1st was my deadline for the full score of “Tatiana.” The Conductor’s score is almost 500 pages long. – May 3rd – the New York premiere of my latest string quartet (no. 8) by the Ying String Quartet, which I call Sylvias Diary. – In May I also finished writing a new Trio for Horn, Violin, and Piano. June 2014 – June 1st was my deadline for the orchestral parts for “Tatiana”. Orchestral rehearsals for the ballet began on June 15. I spent the last two weeks of June in Hamburg, Germany, preparing the premiere of this new ballet. My dear friend Gerrit Glaner, at Steinway in Hamburg, made it possible for the ARTE television network to film a segment on me at the Steinway factory while I was there. – June 29th - premiere of “Tatiana at the Hamburg State Ballet. Helen Bouchet danced the title role. Simon Hewitt conducted the orchestra. July 2014 – July 3 - World Premiere of my new horn trio in Geneva. The work was commissioned to celebrate the anniversary of my two dear friends Ivan and Severine Cohen. Eléazar Cohen, their son, played the horn part in the trio. – July 20 - prepared a post-premiere edited version of “Tatiana” – score and parts – for its Russian premiere at the Stanislavsky Theater in Moscow. From July to December 2014 – I created over 100 drawings and paintings while working almost exclusively on completing and editing the manuscript of the book “Excess of Being.” September 2014 – On September 1, 2014 I finished three flute cadenzas for Mozart Flute Concerto in D K314, commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington D.C. October 2014 – Performances and Recidency in Hungary where I performed a piano concerto with Concerto Budapest orchestra and conductor András Keller at the wonderful Bela Bartok National Concert Hall. The orchestra also performed my Symphony No 1, Chimera, and I presented a lecture-overview of my work at the Music Center Budapest. Carolina Eyck played solo theremin part in the symphony. November 2014 – “Tatiana” was premiered in Moscow at the Stanislavsky Theater with Diana Visheneva dancing the title role and Felix Korobov conducting. – Flautist Aaron Goldman gave the world premiere of the three cadenzas I wrote for Mozart’s Flute Concerto in a concert with the National Symphony Orchestra under the extraordinary Christoph Eschenbach. Christoph also conducted by my “Eterniday” for orchestra that night. – On Nov. 22 - another National orchestra, this time, the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia in Moscow and Vladimir Spivakov gave the Russian premiere of “Eterniday. December 2014 In December - I completed final edits and proofs for “Excess of Being.” - Also in December, I finished a transcription of Prokofiev’s Sonata for Flute (or Violin) and Piano in D major – for Piano Trio. I will premiere this in January with Daniel Hope and Joshua Roman at San Francisco Performances. On the fun side, I enjoyed attending Art-Basel in Miami Beach and went on an exciting drive all around the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, visiting Mayan ruins, small villages, cemeteries and churches. Also enjoyed sight-seeing in Budapest, which included underground medieval labyrinth. And, most of all, enjoyed visits and collaborations with friends and colleagues from all over the world. I love my family that includes humans, four-legged and and many winged creatures. I love my home with its books, a great piano, and art studio. I love life that includes stretches of time when I am away from the world and some periods of intense touring. I love growing, discovering and learning. I hope that my family and friends will be happy, healthy and prosperous in 2015.
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 05:56:09 +0000
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