March 8, 2020 – Alexei Volodin

Dear music lover,

Pianist Alexei Volodin continues Winnipeg’s Beethoven@250 anniversary season by performing a piano-marathon of the five Beethoven piano concerti with the WSO on March 6-7.

Sunday afternoon’s Virtuosi recital (March 8) includes sonatas by Beethoven and Haydn, and several works of Chopin. The two sonatas are linked by the somewhat rare key of E flat and also share a fascinating mixture of humour and seriousness.

Volodin is an amazing pianist of great power and virtuosity. He creates a sensation wherever he plays. He was born in Leningrad in 1977 and has been in strong demand around the world ever since he won the 2003 International Geza Anda Competition in Zurich.

We get to hear him in an intimate recital less than 24 hours after completing the exhaustive and exhausting Beethoven concerto cycle. This is THE recital of the 2019-20 Winnipeg concert season and should not be missed.

I will be attending all three concerts. I hope you will join me. It is a rare opportunity for Winnipeggers to see and hear this truly exceptional Russian artist.

Care for a sneak peek? Click HERE to see him play Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 18, Op. 31, No. 3 in E-flat Major.

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Virtuosi’s  next two concerts continue the Beethoven celebrations of 2020, first with cellist Colin Carr performing all the Beethoven cello works, and then with the Dover Quartet revealing Beethoven’s influence on the “Evolution of the String Quartet.”

The world of Beethoven is so rich, deep and vast that musicians and music-lovers are always learning from him. As I noted in my September High Note, this is why the music critic David Duval was moved to write that “…for some of us, a day without Beethoven’s message is a day when we are not fully human.”
 

ENJOY - AND DON'T FORGET THE TIME CHANGE!!

Seanne Buenafe is passionate about all things music - especially the piano. The 15 year-old is currently working on his ARCT diploma and has had great success at numerous festivals and competitions. A frequent performer in the Winnipeg Music Festival, Seanne has been awarded best instrumentalist in 2016 and 2017, and was a runner up for the Beryl Ferguson Trophy, in 2019. That same year, he won the John Melnyk Trophy for the best performance  of a piano concerto at the Festival. He also won the best performance at the Advanced Level in the Manitoba Provincial Festival.
Seanne has received the gold medal from the Royal Conservatory of Music for the highest mark for a piano exam in Manitoba for three consecutive years and was also the recipient of the Manitoba Registered Music Teachers’ Scholarship in the Advanced Piano category in 2019. International successes include an Honorable Mention at the Aloha International Piano Festival in 2018 as well as winning the concerto competition in his age category at the Philadelphia International Musical Festival 2019. Seanne thanks his family for their ongoing support as well as his teacher, Jacqueline Ryz, for her inspiring guidance.
 

Listen to Classic 107's MORNING LIGHT Wednesday at 8:30 AM for Simeon Rusnak's interview with Artistic Director Harry Strub! In a special second interview, join Harry and Chris Wolf in THE DIAMOND LANE Thursday at 4:30 PM to find out more about Virtuosi's dazzling 30th Anniversary Season - You won't want to miss this special two part interview!!