2018 / 2019                    Main Hall           the 6th Season

12 May * Sunday * 6.00 pm

 

Opening Ceremony of the 5th International Festival of Classical

Music and Competition for Young Pianists Astana Piano Passion

Artistic Director: DENIS MATSUEV, People’s Artist of Russia

 

On 12 May, the concert dedicated to the opening ceremony of the 5th International Festival of Classical Music and Competition for Young Pianists Astana Piano Passion 2019 will take place.

The winners of the competition of various years from Kazakhstan, Russia and Japan will perform on the stage of the Astana Opera House along with the People’s Artist of Russia Denis Matsuev.

 

Sanzharali Kopbayev (Kazakhstan)

Sanzharali Kopbayev won the second prize at the Astana Piano Passion 2013 and the first prize at the Astana Piano Passion 2014.

He has been studying piano at the Republican Kazakh Secondary Specialized School for Gifted Children named after Akhmet Zhubanov under the teacher Gulzhan Kazybekova.

Sanzharali Kopbayev has won many international competitions, including Mersi, Maestro! (Brussels, Belgium, 2016, first prize), the 17th International Television Contest for Young Musicians “The Nutcracker” (Moscow, Russia 2016), the Republican Competition (Almaty, Kazakhstan, 2017, Grand Prix), the 10th International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians (Astana, Kazakhstan, 2017, semifinalist, the “Hope” prize) and the International Competition “Music Should Go From The Heart”, dedicated to the 145th anniversary of the birth of Sergei Rachmaninoff (Grand Prix, Pavlodar, Kazakhstan, 2018).

 

Alexander Klyuchko (Russia)

Alexander Klyuchko won the first prize and the Grand Prix of the International Festival of Classical Music and Competition for Young Pianists Astana Piano Passion 2017.

He studied at the Moscow State College of Musical Performance named after Frédéric Chopin (under the teacher Sergei Artsibashev). Since 2018, he has been studying at the École normale de musique in Paris under the teacher Rena Shereshevskaya.

He has performed with the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, the Spanish Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra, the Rostov Academic Philharmonic Orchestra, the Astana Opera Symphony Orchestra and the Governor’s Orchestra of the Irkutsk Region.

Alexander Klyuchko has won the International Festival of Romantic Music “Virtuoso” (Moscow, 2016, 2017), the 6th International Competition for Pianists in the Memory of Vera Lotar-Shevchenko (Yekaterinburg, 2016, first prize), the 13th  International Competition for Young Musicians (Central Music School, Moscow, 2016, first prize), the 2nd Vladimir Krainev International Piano Competition (Moscow, 2017, finalist), the 20th International Piano Competition of Ile de France (Maisons Laffitte, France, 2018, first prize) and the 19th Paloma O’Shea Santander International Piano Competition (Santander, Spain, 2018, third prize).

 

Shio Okui (Japan)

Shio Okui won the first prize of the International Festival of Classical Music and Competition for Young Pianists Astana Piano Passion 2014.

She showed an interest in music at the age of five. She studied piano at the Central Music School of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory under the teacher Elena Ashkenazy (1949-2017). Since 2018, she has been a student at the Moscow Secondary Special Music Gnessin School (under Tatiana Zelikman).

She made her orchestral debut at the age of 8. She gave concerts with the Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra (conducted by Valery Gergiev), the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, the Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra (conducted by Vladimir Spivakov), the Russian National Orchestra (conducted by Mikhail Pletnev), the Moscow Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra (conducted by Alexander Anisimov), the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra (conducted by Kazuyoshi Akiyama), the New Japan Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra (conducted by Ken-ichiro Kobayashi), the Governor’s Symphony Orchestra of the Irkutsk Regional Philharmonic (conducted by Ilmar Lapins), the Symphony Orchestra of the National Philharmonic of Ukraine (conducted by Nikolai Dyadyura), the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted by Harutyun Arzumanyan) and other ensembles.

Shio Okui won the International Television Contest for Young Musicians “The Nutcracker” in Moscow (“The Silver Nutcracker” prize and the Audience Award, 2013), the International Competition for Young Pianists in the Memory of Vladimir Horowitz in Kiev (first prize, 2013), the Vladimir Krainev Moscow International Piano Competition (first prize “Discovery”, 2015) and the International Competition for Young Pianists “Grand Piano Competition” in Moscow (2016).

 

ON THE PROGRAMME:

Prokofiev. Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 3, movement 1

Tchaikovsky. Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1, movements 2 and 3

Chopin. Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2, movement 3

Liszt. Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2

 

PERFORMED BY:

Sanzharali Kopbayev (Kazakhstan)

Alexander Klyuchko (Russia)

Shio Okui (Japan)

Denis Matsuev (Russia)

Astana Opera Symphony Orchestra

Conducted by Honoured Worker of Kazakhstan Abzal Mukhitdinov