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NEWS SERVICES |
| For immediate use |
Nov. 24, 2003 -- No. 620 |
Photo note: To download photos, see end of release.
Concert to celebrate music of Russia on 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg
By JENA WITTKAMP
UNC News Services
CHAPEL HILL -- The 300th anniversary of the founding of St. Petersburg will be celebrated Dec. 9 with a concert of Russian classical music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Three professional New York musicians will perform works by Russian composers Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich, Mily Balakirev and Sergei Rachmaninoff at 8 p.m. in Hill Hall Auditorium.
Among them will be Moscow native Oxana Yablonskaya, a professor of piano at The Juilliard School, about whom a Toronto Star critic once wrote: "She played Rachmaninoff’s 3rd as if it were written for her."
Also performing will be Laura Hamilton, on violin, and Samuel Magill Jr., on cello, from the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Hamilton is principal associate concertmaster and Magill, cellist and former associate principal cellist.
The concert will be free to UNC students and employees and $10 for the public. Tickets may be purchased in advance by calling or visiting the music department in Hill Hall, 962-1039. Any remaining tickets will be sold at the door.
The trio’s UNC visit results from a father-son connection. Cellist Magill’s father, Sam Magill, is associate director of gift planning in UNC’s development office. Last June, he and Dr. Darryl Gless, senior associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, attended one of the younger Magill’s concerts while on a fund-raising trip to New York. Gless’ reaction: "Let’s get them down here!" -- to UNC.
Umpteen calendar comparisons later, Magill Jr. found a date agreeable to three busy musicians. His father, a 1950 UNC alumnus, and others at UNC believe their visit will be an outstanding cultural and educational opportunity for both the university and the community.
"I hope listeners will gain a real appreciation for Russian classical music," said Dr. Beth Holmgren, a UNC professor of Polish and Russian literatures and chair of the department of Slavic languages and literatures, which is sponsoring the concert with the music department.
While in Chapel Hill, Hamilton and Magill will conduct master classes for UNC students.
Yablonskaya began studying piano at age 5 and graduated with highest honors from the Moscow Conservatory, where she remained on staff. Westerners first heard her in the 1960s, when she won top prizes at competitions in Paris, Rio de Janeiro and Vienna. Many invitations to perform followed, but rules in the former Soviet Union did not allow her to accept, according to a biography from her publicist.
So Yablonskaya applied to emigrate, but permission was denied. Then, she lost her job at the conservatory, her concerts stopped and she was made to sell her piano.
But 45 American writers, musicians, senators and actors -- including Leonard Bernstein, Steven Sondheim, Richard Rodgers and Katharine Hepburn -- signed a petition requesting permission for Yablonskaya to leave the Soviet Union. As a result, she immigrated to the United States in June 1977. She had not played piano in two years. But four months later, she drew favorable reviews for a concert at Lincoln Center, and soon debuted at Carnegie Hall. After her first London recital in 1982, the Daily Telegraph reported: "Oxana Yablonskaya is the sort of pianist who accomplishes with ease and naturalness what others struggle for a lifetime to achieve."
Since then, Yablonskaya has recorded extensively and performed solo and with orchestras in more than 40 countries.
Hamilton has been a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra since 1986. She was admitted to the Moscow Conservatory at age 16 and earned a master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music, receiving its Kraeuter Musical Foundation Award for Excellence in Chamber Music. Her solo debut was at Carnegie Hall in 1981. She previously was with the Chicago and New Jersey symphonies.
Magill, principal associate cellist for the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra from 1991-1998, is still an orchestra member but stepped down from the leadership position to pursue other collaborations. He has performed most major cello concertos with the New York Symphonic Ensemble over the group’s last five seasons, with three of them recorded by Panasonic.
He also performs with the Elysian trio, which made its Carnegie Hall debut in 1997. Magill, a North Carolina native, attended the N.C. School of the Arts and earned a bachelor’s degree in music at the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University and a master’s from Rice University.
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(Wittkamp, of Raleigh, is a senior majoring in women’s studies and journalism and mass communication.)
Contact: Glenn McDonald, 962-1039
News Services Contact: L.J. Toler, 962-8589
