Tanya Remenikova, cello
Alexander Braginsky, piano
Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967)
Sonatina for Cello and Piano
Thelma Hunter & Alexander Braginsky, piano duo
Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)
2 Norwegian Dances for Piano 4 Hands, Op. 35
Alexander Braginsky, piano
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)
Sonata for Piano No. 4 in C minor, Op. 29
Allegro molto sostenuto
Andante assai
Allegro con brio, ma non leggiero
About the Artists:
Cellist Tanya Remenikova has inspired critical acclaim during her 40-year international performing career. Reviews from around the world describe her "impassioned approach" to cello playing as having an "elegant, singing tone," "expressive radiancy," "sonority," and "lustre."
Performances have brought her to the major halls in music capitals around the world: London, Moscow, Jerusalem, Brussels, Bonn, Frankfurt, Florence, Taipei, Shanghai. Remenikova has been soloist with the Israel Philharmonic, Jerusalem Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, and Orchestre Nationale de Belgique, among others. In the United States, recital performances have taken her to New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, Kansas City, Houston, San Francisco and the Aspen Music Festival.
Remenikova's recordings of Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, and Britten are on the DDF and Sound Star Tone labels. Her concert performances have been broadcast in several countries on networks such as the BBC in London, BRT-RTB in Brussels, WFMT in Chicago, WQXR in New York City, National Public Radio, and American Public Radio on such nationally broadcast programs as Saint Paul Sunday Morning.
Professor and chamber music coach on the faculty at the University of Minnesota School of Music since 1976, Remenikova has attracted students from all over the world. As a teacher, she relies on her own thorough training in music, both as cellist and pianist. Before she became a student of the world renowned Mstislav Rostropovich at the Moscow Conservatory in Russia, Remenikova studied with Valentin Berlinsky, a member of the renowned Borodin Quartet.
An avid chamber music player, she performs regularly with the Saint Paul-based Hill House Chamber Players. She also appeared in the Barge Chamber Music Series in New York and with the Karlsruhe Trio in Germany. She has given master classes in Europe, Asia and the U.S. and premiered a number of new compositions, including a work dedicated to her by Judith Zaimont, "Tanya" Poems for Cello Solo.
She is a recipient of 2007 Master Teacher Studio Award from the Minnesota Chapter of the American String Teachers Association.
Pianist Thelma Hunter has an active career as a recitalist, soloist and chamber musician. She has served on the faculty of the University of Minnesota School of Music and has appeared as soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Minnesota Sinfonia and the Minneapolis Civic Orchestra. She received her undergraduate degree from Cornell College where she was a student of the legendary pianist Egon Petrie, and completed her Master’s Degree at the Eastman School of Music. Mrs. Hunter has served on the boards of numerous arts organizations in the Twin Cities including the Schubert Club, the Dale Warland Singers, the American Composers Forum, the University of Minnesota School of Music and the Jerome Foundation. She frequently champions the creation of new music and has premiered many works by Minnesota composers, including Stephen Paulus, Paul Schoenfield and Stanislaw Skrowacewski.
Alexander Braginsky was born and educated in Moscow. He received his first piano lessons from his mother, a well-known concert pianist. At the age of six he began study with Alexander Goldenweiser, a close friend of Leo Tolstoy and a classmate of Rachmaninov and Scriabin. It was through Goldenweiser, with whom he spent 12 years as his youngest student, that Braginsky came into contact with the great 19th-century romantic tradition. After Goldenweiser death, he continued to study with Theodore Gutman, another illustrious representative of the "Golden Age" of Russian piano school.
Braginsky's repertoire extends from Baroque to avant-garde. He performed over twenty world premieres, most of which were works commissioned and written for him, including music by Stephen Paulus, Libby Larsen and Paul Fetler's Piano Concerto, commissioned by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Braginsky performed extensively in the former USSR, Israel, England, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Taiwan, the People's Republic of China, Spain, France and the United States. The London Times characterized Braginsky's playing as "splendid" and the Chicago Sun-Times called him "... a pianist with a fine, commanding sound that he can also use with great delicacy and expression."
Braginsky has recorded for DDF, Sound StarTone and d'Note labels. He has appeared repeatedly on BBC, National Public Radio, RTB-BRT and other radio stations throughout the world.
Braginsky was artist-in-residence in Churchill College, England in 1981 and 1986. He is Professor on the faculty of the International Music Summer Course in Vienna, Austria, and has given numerous masterclasses in Europe, Asia and North America. Many of his students have won national and international competitions. In the summer of 2006, Braginsky will serve on the faculty of the International Keyboard Institute & Festival in New York City.
Braginsky frequently judges International and National Piano Competitions. He is the Artistic Director of the Musicians in Debut International (MIDI) as well as the Founding President and the Artistic Director of the International Piano-e-Competition