MUSIC

In celebration of Franz Liszt's 200th birthday, Classically Alive is hosting “Euphoria On The Liszt.”  This night will feature Asiya Korepanova, a visiting pianist, poet and artist from Moscow, Russia.  The complete Transcendental Etudes will be performed with poetry, video and pictures by Asiya.  Come celebrate with us!

In 2007 Asiya Korepanova released a compilation of graphic, poetic and musical compositions. Her original and extraordinary project “Euphoria on the Liszt’ included a compact disc with the recording of “Twelve etudes d’execution transcendante” of Ferenc Liszt as well as a personal recording of her poetry. An accompanying printed visual held her personal drawings and poems which correlated with each of Liszt’s etudes.
This project has had brilliant critical responses and has been recognized as a breakthrough in the field of performing arts.


Asiya Korepanova is one of the brightest Russian pianists of younger generation, the artist and the poet.
Born in Izhevsk, Udmurtia, near P.Tchaikovsky’s birthplace in a family of professional musicians, she started playing piano at the age of four. She gave her first full philharmonic recital at the age of eight and at the same time appeared as a soloist with orchestra performing Mozart Eighth concerto with cadenza written by herself. She completed her tertiary school education in Moscow Central Music School, where she graduated with a degree both in piano playing and composition (the composer faculty had been opened there especially for her).
During five years from 2001 to 2006, Asiya studied piano playing in the class of Professor Elisso Virssaladze in the Moscow State Chopin College and the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, partaking in master classes with famous Professors R. Tureck, M.Curcio, O.Yablonskaya, M.Preissler, I.Lazko, V.Krainev, L.Dorfman, D.Pollack and D.Bashkirov at Salzburg Festival and at Oxford Philomusica Festival. In 2007 she became a student of Peter Laul in the Saint-Petersburg State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory. Graduated in 2009 she had been selected by the State commission as the best pianist-graduate of Conservatory for the performance with an orchestra in the Big Hall of the St.-Petersburg Philharmonic society.
Asiya became the prizewinner of numerous international piano competitions, the most significant of these being the ”N. Rubinstein Piano Competition” (Paris 1997), the “Classical Heritage” Competition (1st prize in both piano and composition, Moscow 1998), and The Young Artists Skriabin Competition (Moscow 1998).
She has been given The Russian Federation President Award for “Exceptional Achievement in the Arts” at the age of 12 (1997). In 1999 she became a member of the International Charity Foundation of Vladimir Spivakov.
Later her talent was marked by the “National Award” from the Republic of Udmurtia, the “Berliner Salon” Award (2003) and the most prestigious Russian prize for the encouragement of the achievements in art and literature "Triumph" (youth category, 2005). In 2006 she received a diploma and medal for participation in the Moscow’s Kremlin Museums 200th Anniversary.
In 2009 she became an Honored Artist of her native Udmurtia Republic and soloist of Moscow Philharmonic Society.
Her enormous repertoire includes more than 45 concertos with orchestra including complete concertos of S.Prokofiev, L.Van Beethoven, I.Brahms, F.Liszt, F.Chopin and M.Ravel. The special place among the solo programs of her repertoire is occupied with fundamental cycles – The Well Tempered Clavier of I.S.Bach (both volumes) and his Goldberg-variations, F.Liszt's Twelve Transcendental etudes, F.Chopin’s complete Ballades, Scherzos, Impromptus; F.Schubert’s, R.Schumann’s, J.Brahms's and P.I.Tchaikovsky’s late cycles, and many others.
In 1994 and 1998 Asiya published the first two collections of her combined poems and graphics.
In 2007 she released a compilation of graphic, poetic and musical compositions. Her original and extraordinary project “Euphoria on the Liszt’ included a compact disc with the recording of “Twelve etudes d’execution transcendante” of Ferenc Liszt as well as a personal recording of her poetry. An accompanying printed visual held her personal drawings and poems which correlated with each of Liszt’s etudes. This project had brilliant critical responses and has been recognized as a break in the field of a performing art.
In 2008 Asiya made a presentation of her second project performing The First Volume of Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier with 24 personal drawings for each piece.
In 2010 autumn Asiya plans to present her new project with her own poetry and a water-colour to P.Tchaikovsky's 18 pieces op. 72, dedicated to the 170th anniversary from the date of composer's birth.
Asiya appeared as an orchestral soloist with the State Academic Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra of Russia under Mark Gorenstein, “The Moscow Virtuoses” chamber orchestra and National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia under Vladimir Spivakov, Hans Graf and Ion Marin, Ural Philharmonic Orchestra under Dmitri Liss, St.Petersburg Academic Symphony Orchestra, and many others. She has made numerous recordings on television and radio. She also concertized with various symphony orchestras, in addition to playing solo recitals in major concert halls in Russian Federation, Germany, Austria, Greece, Spain, France, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Kuwait, Syria, India, Great Britain and Australia. She has been invited to international music festivals including the “Oxford Philomusica” Piano Festival (Great Britain) and Vladimir Spivakov’s International Music Festivals in Colmar (France) and in Theatre “Chatelet” (Paris), Nikolai Petrov’s International Festival “The Musical Kremlin” (Moscow, Kremlin), Tchaikovsky International Festival at the Tchaikovsky birthplace (Udmurtia), etc.
Her performances invariably gain tremendous public success and brilliant critical responses.


Pianist Abe Minzer earned a master’s degree in Piano Performance from the Peabody Conservatory, a doctorate in music at West Virginia University, and has taught piano and chamber music at Goucher College in Baltimore, MD. He plays concerts throughout the US, and has appeared as piano soloist in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major with the Pittsburgh Symphony. Dr. Minzer has performed and introduced compositions of many contemporary composers such as Robert Hall Lewis, Ofer Ben-Amots, Jorge Cardoso and Sylvia Hazlerig at venues, including Classically Alive, Temple Beit Torah, Colorado College, and the PILLAR Adult Education School.
Currently, Dr. Minzer is an instructor at University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (UCCS), teaching courses such as Music Theory, Introduction to Music, and 20th Century Music. Dr. Minzer is also on the faculty at Pikes Peak Community College where he teaches private piano, Class Piano, and Fundamentals of Music. At the MTNA / Colorado State Music Teachers Association annual conference during June 2010, Dr. Minzer presented the lecture-performance “Late Chopin, New Beginnings”, in commemoration of the composer’s 200th birthday.
Abe Minzer is creator/director of “Classically Alive”. Under the sponsorship of the Pikes Peak Arts Council, Classically Alive hosts over 40 musicians and other artists, and features diverse monthly at-home music/arts salons, in addition to programs across Colorado. A venue for painters, poets, discussion, with fine food and great camaraderie, Classically Alive salons host a wide range of musical styles including classical, contemporary, popular styles, jazz, and world music.