Pianist Dmitri Shteinberg to perform Mussorgsky's epic work
Virginia Tech Department of Music presents pianist Dmitri Shteinberg performing a solo recital featuring Mussorgsky’s epic work “Pictures at an Exhibition” on Friday, Nov. 30 at 8 p.m. in the Squires Recital Salon located on College Avenue adjacent to downtown Blacksburg.
Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” was a tribute to his close friend artist Viktor Hartmann who died in 1873. After viewing a commemorative art exhibition of Hartmann’s works Mussorgsky produced his masterpiece in just one and a half months. The composition is meant to be a tour of the exhibition that included over 400 paintings with Mussorgsky focusing his music on the paintings Hartmann created while traveling abroad. “Pictures at an Exhibition” is music that offers virtuosic piano playing and exquisite listening pleasure.
The program will also include Robert Schumann’s Six Intermezzi Op. 4, Phantasiestucke Op. 111, and Gesange der Fruhe Op. 133.
Recently called “protean and refined” by the New York Times, Shteinberg has appeared across North America, Germany, England, France, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Bulgaria and Israel. His solo performances include the Jerusalem Symphony, The Italian Philarmonica Marchetiana, Israel Chamber Orchestra, Israel Camerata Orchestra and Porto National Symphony; he was a guest artist at the Sarasota and Summit Music Festivals, Music Festival of the Hamptons, the ''Oleg Kagan'' Festival in Germany, Festival Aix-en-Provence in France and Open Chamber Music in Cornwall, England. Recent concerts include Kennedy Center and Alice Tully Hall, a recital at the Boas Charitable Trust in London and a performance of Beethoven’s complete cello and piano sonatas at BargeMusic in New York.
A native of Moscow, Shteinberg studied at the Gnessin Special School of Music under Anna Kantor, teacher of Evgeny Kissin. His later teachers include Victor Derevianko and Nina Svetlanova, both students of Heinrich Neuhaus. Shteinberg holds a Doctorate from the Manhattan School of Music, and is currently an Assistant Professor of Piano and Coordinator of Piano Area at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. He is also on faculty at the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival in Burlington, Vt.
Tickets are $3 for students and seniors, and $5 for general admission and are available at the door one hour prior to performance time.
The mission of the Department of Music, located within the School of the Arts in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, is to provide professional music training to select music students and to enhance the cultural life of the university, region, and the Commonwealth. These are accomplished through teaching, professional service, artistic performance, creativity and research. The Department of Music also provides high-quality training to a wide variety of ensembles and courses for large numbers of non-music majors.
For more information about the Music Department at Virginia Tech, please call (540) 231-5685 or visit online at www.music.vt.edu.
