The 1991 Project presents cello/piano duo Askar Ishangaliyev and Anna Khmara, with a program of works by Nadia Boulanger, Debussy, Silvestrov, and Viktor Kosenko. Learn more about the 1991 Project: https://globalcenters.columbia.edu/content/1991-project
Video by Zoya Laktionova.
Program
Nadia Boulanger (1887–1979), Three Pieces for Cello and Piano, 1914 [8’]
I. Modéré
II. Sans vitesse et a l’aise
III. Vite et nerveusement rythmé
Viktor Kosenko (1896-1938), Sonata for Cello and Piano in D Minor, op. 10, 1923 [30’]
I. Moderato
II. Andante con motto
III. Allegro con fuoco
Valentyn Sylvestrov (b. 1937), Kitsch-Music, cycle of five pieces for piano, 1977 [12’]
Claude Debussy (1862–1918), Sonata for Cello and Piano in D Minor, L 135, 1915 [11’]
I. Prologue
II. Sérénade
III. Finale
2024 marks the 60th anniversary of the gift of Reid Hall to Columbia University by Helen Rogers Reid. This concert was performed as part of these anniversary celebrations.
Musicians
Askar Ishangaliyev was born in 1985 in Almaty, Kazakhstan, where he began studying the cello at the age of 7. Noted for his musical abilities, he decided to continue his studies in France where he entered the class of Philippe Muller in Aulnay Sous Bois and then the CNSM in Paris. Askar notably plays in trio with Jean-Noël Molard and Jean Angliviel, or as a soloist with the Toulouse Chamber Orchestra, the Orchester de Tours, Halle Staatskappele, the Lille National Orchestra. He is supported by the Meyer Foundation and ADAMI. Actively performing contemporary repertoire, Askar Ishangaliev has worked with musicians such as Pierre Boulez, Mauricio Kagel, Peter Eötvös, Michaël Lévinas, Bruno Mantovani, Martin Matalon and Heinz Holliger, and since 2008 he has been the cello soloist of the Le Balcon ensemble.
Anna Khmara has performed various solo parts as a pianist in orchestras, playing compositions by Antonio Vivaldi, Johann Sebastian Bach, Niels Gade, Astor Piazzolla, and many other composers. She is also experienced in playing the organ, harpsichord, and celesta. Chamber music plays a significant role in Anna’s career, and she has been giving concerts since 1994 in Ukraine and abroad. She has published several articles in specialized publications and magazines for a wide audience, and has actively participated in numerous conferences, presenting various aspects of music-making during the 18th century. Most recently, she has been working on a thesis focused on the instrumental music of Ukrainian composers from the 18th century.
Ukrainian Resonance: Chamber Music Concerts at Reid Hall
The 1991 Project presents a chamber music concert series featuring performances by Ukrainian musicians affected by war, as well as their renowned international colleagues, who are popularizing the Ukrainian repertoire. The series aims to promote Ukrainian music and highlight its deep connections to European cultural trends.
As the 2023-24 project-in-residence at the Reid Hall Displaced Artists Initiative, the 1991 Project has organized six concerts, as well as co-organized events in partnership with Eastern Circles, the Arts Arena, the Zadkine Museum, and the Centre international Nadia et Lili Boulanger. This followed their inaugural series, the Silvestrov Days in Paris in spring 2023, which celebrated one of Ukraine’s greatest contemporary composers.
Organizers
The 1991 Project is a Paris-based initiative that aims to explore and popularize unknown or rarely performed repertoire and to support endangered talents. Its core principles are social entrepreneurship and feminist leadership. The project is led by Anna Stavychenko, a scholar in musicology, opera critic, and classical music curator, former executive director of the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra and Harriman Resident of the Institute for Ideas & Imagination from Columbia University during the season 2022-2023. The project’s main focus is the Ukrainian musical repertoire from classicism to the present day. https://globalcenters.columbia.edu/content/1991-project
The Columbia Global Paris Center addresses pressing global issues that are at the forefront of international education and research: agency and gender; climate and the environment; critical dialogues for just societies; encounters in the arts; and health and medical science. https://globalcenters.columbia.edu/paris
Each year the Institute for Ideas and Imagination brings together a cohort of 14-15 Fellows, half of them Columbia faculty and post-docs, the other half artists and writers from around the world, to spend a year together in work and conversation. The Institute fosters intellectual and creative diversity unconstrained by medium and discipline through the interaction of the arts and academia. https://ideasimagination.columbia.edu/
The Paris Center and Institute are part of Columbia Global. https://global.columbia.edu/