NEWS RELEASE

Contact: David West (west@nsula.edu )
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466

9/02/2003

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATCHITOCHES- The Louisiana Piano Series International will begin its second season with a concert by Alexander Tutunov on Friday, Sept. 19 at 7:30 p.m. in Magale Recital Hall on the Northwestern State University campus. This year's Piano Series International will feature pianists from Byelorussia, South Korea, Russia, Poland and the United States. NSU Assistant Professor of Piano Nikita Fitenko is the series organizer.

Tickets for the entire concert series is $20 or $10 for each individual concert. Admission is free for any college, elementary or secondary school student in Louisiana.

Pianists also scheduled to perform during the fall semester are Eun Soo Son of South Korea on Saturday, Oct. 18, Anastasia Voltchok of Russia, winner of the 2003 World Piano Competition on Saturday, Nov. 15. In the spring semester, Mark Zeltser of Russia and the United States will present a recital on Saturday, Jan. 31. Oxana Yablonskaya of Russian and the United States will perform on Saturday, February 22. A recital by Adam Wodnicki of Poland will conclude the season on Saturday, March 27. The artists will also give master classes for area students.

"We have put together a series of recitals which will bring world class musicians to Natchitoches and Northwestern," said Fitenko. "The concerts will be done in a format which will be entertaining to the audience and will give them a better appreciation of the works performed."

Tutunov is one of the most outstanding young virtuosos of the former Soviet Union. A native of Byelorussia, he entered the Central Music School of the Moscow Conservatory at age seven, one of three chosen out of 200 applicants, to study with Lev Naumov and Victor Merzhanov, where he graduated magna cum laude. He also holds diplomas in concert performance, with honors, from the Minsk Musical College (Byelorussia), University of North Texas (piano studies with Joseph Banowetz), and the Byelorussian National Academy of Music.

Tutunov was awarded the highest post graduate degree in concert performance from the Byelorussian State Conservatory in Minsk. He won first prize in the Byelorussian National Piano Competition, and was a winner of the Russian National Piano Competition. Tutunov has performed extensively in the former Soviet Union, Poland, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and the United States as a recitalist, soloist with orchestra, and on radio and television.

He is presently under contract with Altarus Records to record the complete solo piano works of Lev Abeliovich. His recent recordings also include a concerto for piano and orchestra by Peter Sacco with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra.

Tutunov is director of keyboard studies at Southern Oregon University, He has also taught at the Minsk College of Music, the University of North Texas, and Illinois Wesleyan University.

Son has been featured as soloist with several major symphony orchestras, including the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra. She was a prizewinner in numerous international competitions such as the Busoni International Piano Competition and the Artist International Competition, Senigalia International Piano Competition and the D'angello Young Artist International Piano Competition.

Voltchok has performed extensively throughout Russia, Western and Eastern Europe, and the United States. She has also been a first prizewinner of many international piano competitions. Voltchok won the 2003 American Music Association World Piano Competition in Cincinnati, which comes with a $10,000 cash prize as well as an upcoming performance at the New York's Lincoln Center.

Since he left the Soviet Union in 1977, Zeltser's regular orchestral and solo performances in all European countries, North and South America, Japan and Australia, as well as numerous television appearances worldwide have generated comparisons with the legendary giants of the piano. His special concert in Bologna, Italy, in 1993 attracted an audience of over 50 000, an all-time record for paid public attendance for classical music.

Zeltser has appeared with some of the world's greatest orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Toronto and Montreal orchestras, the Royal Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France and the Moscow Philharmonic.

Yablonskaya burst upon American concert scene when she came to the United States from Russia in 1977 and made her first recital appearance to great acclaim at Lincoln Center Alice Tully Hall. A sold-out Carnegie Hall concert soon followed and she has since taken her place among the major pianists of the world. She has played in leading concert halls throughout the world, including the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Orchestra Hall in Chicago, Royal Albert Hall in London and the Concetgebouw in Amsterdam.

Described by the critics as a "phenomenal pianist" and a "musical star," the Polish born Wodnicki has received wide acclaim for his dramatic interpretations, poetic sensitivity and brilliant technique. His programming centers on the great Romantics and encompasses the entire spectrum of 20th century music.

For more information on the Louisiana Piano International Series, call (318) 357-5763 or go to www.fitenko.com/pianoseries.

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