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NEWS RELEASE
Contact: David West (west@nsula.edu
)
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466
2/6/2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NATCHITOCHES -Aleksandra Ognanoska sees Thursday's performance with the Natchitoches-Northwestern Symphony Orchestra as an opportunity to share the music she loves with an audience.
Ognanoska, one of the winners of the NSU Concerto Competition, will be featured as part of the Natchitoches-Northwestern Symphony Orchestra concert Thursday, Feb. 9 at 7:30 p.m. in Magale Recital Hall. Douglas Bakenhus is the conductor. Tickets are $10. NSU and Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts students are admitted free with an I.D.
Other featured soloists will be Lindsay Braun on clarinet, Rachel Hagar on flute, soprano Cara Waring and Stephen Pruett on marimba. Ognanoska earned the highest score during the competition. She will perform a selection from Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 1
Ognanoska is a freshman piano performance major from St. Petersburg, Russia. She learned about Northwestern when she auditioned for professor of piano Nikita Fitenko last summer in St. Petersburg. Ognanoska was born in Macedonia and moved to Russia when she was a child. When she was offered a scholarship to study at NSU, Ognanoska was ready to grab the opportunity
"This is a new life for me. I am excited about being in the United States," she said. "It is very challenging here. The university is set up differently from the way it is in Russia. Here you have to take a number of classes in different subjects. In Russia, education is more specialized."
Ognanoska is one of several talented piano students recruited to Northwestern by Fitenko. These students have taken part in competitions around the country and brought national attention to NSU. Ognanoska said she benefits from having fellow students with a similar background.
"It is better to have other students here who can understand the problems you have here like the language. We help each other," she said.
Having a number of talented students studying music has helped the university as well as the individual students.
"There are many talented students here. There is a great deal of competition between the students which is good because it makes us work hard and helps make the department the best it can be," said Ognanoska.
This will be Ognanoska's third performance with a symphony orchestra. She performed twice with the Macedonian Symphony, once when she was 14 and again two years later. This is her first time to perform the Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 1 before a large audience.
"Rachmaninoff is a typical Russian composer. He represents the Russian spirit and I wanted to introduce it to more people here. Rachmaninoff took melodies from traditional Russian folk tunes and made them into music that let people find out about Russian tradition and culture. It is easy to understand why his music is so important to the Russian people."
Ognanoska is glad NSU students are given the chance to take part in a competition and perform with the Natchitoches-Northwestern Symphony Orchestra.
"It was exciting and enjoyable for me to take part in the competition," she said. "It wasn't about winning because I didn't go into it just to win. I wanted to have a chance to go in, perform my music and compete."