TMORA 20th Anniversary Concert: A Night of Tchaikovsky
Saturday, November 19, 2022
Denis Evstuhin, piano
Ivan Konev, piano
Anton Melnichenko, piano
Natalia Moiseeva, violin
Erik Wheeler, cello
PROGRAM
Trio in A minor (In memory of a great artist), Op. 50
P. Tchaikovsky
I. Pezzo elegiaco (Moderato assai – Allegro giusto)
Natalia Moiseeva, Erik Wheeler & Ivan Konev
Dumka (Russian Rustic Scene), Op. 59
P. Tchaikovsky
Anton Melnichenko
Entr’acte from The Sleeping Beauty
P. Tchaikovsky
Natalia Moiseeva & Ivan Konev
Andante maestoso from The Nutcracker
P. Tchaikovsky (arr.) M. Pletnev
Anton Melnichenko
~ INTERMISSION ~
Grand Sonata in G major, Op. 37 (1878)
P. Tchaikovsky
I. Moderato e risoluto
II. Andante non troppo quasi Moderato
III. Scherzo. Allegro giocoso
IV. Finale. Allegro vivace
Denis Evstuhin
Concert Paraphrase on Eugene Onegin, Op.81 P. Tchaikovsky / P. Pabst
Anton Melnichenko
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Russian pianist Denis Evstuhin has earned international acclaim for his vibrant artistry, remarkable sound quality and brilliant virtuosity by audiences and critics alike. He has appeared on stages of the world’s most prestigious venues, including Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the great Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff Halls in Moscow, the Mariinsky Theater and Philharmonic Halls in St. Petersburg and Warsaw, as well as Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis. Evstuhin appeared as a soloist with the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, and the Sioux City Symphony.
Denis holds both Graduate and Post-graduate degrees in piano performance and pedagogy from the St. Petersburg Conservatory (studio of Eduard Bazanov and Elena Shishko), as well as M.M. and DMA degrees in piano performance at the University of Minnesota, where he studied with professor Alexander Braginsky. In 2020-2021 Evstuhin served as a faculty member at the University of Minnesota School of Music.
Since 2010 Denis serves as a Music Curator and a founder of the classical music series at TMORA. Within twelve years he organized and participated in more than 60 programs featuring internationally acclaimed musicians, such as Minnesota Orchestra’s former Music Director Osmo Vänskä, concertmaster Erin Keefe, principal cello Anthony Ross, Atrium String Quartet as well as internationally acclaimed operatic singers Vladislav Sulimsky and Mlada Khudoley, among others.
Russian-born pianist Anton Melnichenko has been performing on several continents since his first solo recital at the age of twelve. His performances have always garnered him both public and critical acclaim. In addition to top prizes Melnichenko has received various special audience awards on numerous international competitions.
A graduate of the prestigious Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, Anton has also received his Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Piano Performance from the University of Minnesota, where he studied with Professor Alexander Braginsky.
Melnichenko has earned top prizes in a number of international competitions, including first prizes at the International Competition “Citta di Fasano” (Italy), the Shubert Club Competition (USA), International Competition The Art of 21st century (Ukraine), as well as the fourth prize at the V International Piano Competition in Andorra.
Ivan Konev was born in Ukraine and educated in Moscow where he completed his Masters degree in Piano performance from Gnessin’s Music Academy. In 2010 Ivan finished his Doctoral degree in Piano performance from the University of Minnesota under Alexander Braginsky.
As a soloist, Ivan has won prizes in a number of international and local piano competitions. An active performer, Ivan has appeared numerous times in solo and chamber music concerts on such venues as Embassy of the United States in Moscow, Great, Small and Rachmaninoff Halls of the Moscow Conservatory, Sundin Music Hall and Ted Mann Concert Hall in Minneapolis, among others. Konev is a Founder of the “Crimea Classic Fest” music festival.
Currently, he is a Founder and Artistic Director of the UWRF Piano Fest and UWRF Piano&Strings camp at the University of Wisconsin – River Falls where he is a Director of Keyboard Studies.
Russia’s native violinist Natalia Moiseeva holds BM and MM degrees in Violin Performance from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Russia, and a DMA degree in Violin Performance from the University of Minnesota, where she studied with professor Sally O’Reilly. A winner of number of National Youth Competitions in Russia, Natalia in 2009 has won the University of Minnesota School of Music Concerto Competition and performed Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the University Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Mark Russell Smith. She has also appeared as a soloist with the Kharkiv Philharmonic Orchestra (Ukraine), Minnesota Sinfonia and the Kenwood Symphony Orchestra.
She regularly performs with the Minnesota Orchestra and Minnesota Opera.
Moiseeva is on the Faculty at Gustavus Adolphus College and Carleton College. She is a recipient of an Artist Initiative and Creative Support Grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board. In 2020 she has released her solo CD “The Young Violinist’s Album”.
Houston-born cellist Erik Wheeler began his musical studies with Diane Bonds at the age of five, and subsequently studied with Steve Laven, Lynn Harrell, and Brinton Smith.
He earned his undergraduate degree from Rice University, where his principal teacher was Desmond Hoebig, after which he spent a year at the Juilliard School with Richard Aaron. While at Rice, he performed Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations with the Shepherd School Chamber Orchestra as the winner of the school’s concerto competition, and served as principal cellist for the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra. He has performed chamber music alongside world-renowned artists including Jon Kimura Parker, Philip Setzer, Lawrence Dutton, Timothy Eddy, Kim Kashkashian, Susan Starr and Charles Wetherbee, and has appeared as a soloist with numerous orchestras including the Houston Symphony. Wheeler’s parents are both musicians, and his father Lawrence was Co-Principal Violist of the Minnesota Orchestra in the 1970s.
