NEWS RELEASE

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

9/28/2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATCHITOCHES - Six concerts featuring acclaimed pianists from around the world will be performed at Northwestern State University during the 2006-2007 Louisiana Piano Series International. Dr. Nikita Fitenko, an assistant professor of piano at NSU, is artistic director of the series.

The series opens with Anna Polusmiak of the Ukraine on Oct. 8 with performances by Eun Soo Soon of South Korea on Nov. 12, Ivo Kaltcheck on Jan. 27, and Ian Hominick of Canada on Feb. 24. The Russian Piano Concerto Showcase will feature conductor Marlan Carlson, Fitenko, Alexander Tutunov and Katerina Zaitseva on March 29. The season will conclude with a performance by Falko Steinbach of Germany on April 14.

Tickets for the six-concert series are $45. Individual concert tickets are $10. NSU students and any elementary and secondary school students in Louisiana are admitted free.

"I believe this will be another outstanding season of musical performances for the people of this area," said Fitenko. "We will feature some artists who are becoming widely known along with others who have performed in some of the best known venues in the world. There will be a great deal of variety in the performances and I hope those who enjoy music will continue their support of this series."

Polusmiak has performed with orchestras and in solo recitals throughout North America and Europe. She has won prizes and awards in international piano competitions including the Louisiana International Piano Competition, the Kawai American Recording Contest and the International Piano Competition in Lugansk, Ukraine. Her first solo recording was released earlier this year by Classical Records.

Son, a faculty member at Han Yang University in Seoul, South Korea, 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 has performed worldwide in such halls as Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, New York, and Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow.

A prizewinner at international piano competitions and a Bösendorfer Artist, Kaltchev is enjoying a successful performing career as recitalist, soloist with orchestras, chamber musician and recording artist. His commercial recordings on Gega New label include an all-Charles Griffes CD (hailed by the French magazine Diapason as "the most accomplished interpretation known until now") and a critically acclaimed CD with the world premieres of solo piano works by Florent Schmitt. Kaltchev is a faculty member at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

An active soloist, accompanist, adjudicator and teacher, Hominick maintains a busy schedule of concerts and piano masterclasses across the United States and Canada. His performances have been broadcast both regionally and nationally on CBC Radio, Radio-Canada and National Public Radio. Hominick's premiere solo recording of the works of the legendary romantic pianist Sigismund Thalberg was released by Titanic Records in 1995 to glowing reviews from the critics and a nomination for "Best Classical Recording" in the East Coast Music Awards. He is a faculty member at the University of Mississippi.

Carlson is music director of the Corvallis-OSU Symphony Orchestra and chairman of the Oregon State University Department of Music in Corvallis, Ore. Carlson holds the Doctorate of Musical Arts and the Artist's Diploma from the Eastman School of Music and has been both a Fulbright Scholar and a Danforth Fellow.

Fitenko has performed recitals and with orchestras in the former Soviet Union, Europe, Asia, and South and North America. A native of St. Petersburg, Russia, Fitenko graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory with a citation for excellence given to only five other graduates in the last 50 years.

Tutunov won first prize in the Byelorussian National Piano Competition, and was a winner of the Russian National Piano Competition. He has performed widely 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 director of keyboard studies at Southern Oregon University.

A native of Moscow, Russia, Zaitseva has performed in the United States, Germany, Luxembourg, South Korea, and Russia including appearances in Moscow State Conservatory Hall (Moscow, Russia), John F. Kennedy Center (Washington D.C.), and Steinway Hall (Dallas, Texas). She is a member of the faculty at Louisiana College and is a former faculty member at NSU.

Steinbach has an extended international performance career with solo performances and recordings in the United States, Europe and Asia. He is regularly invited as a soloist, clinician and adjudicator at international music festivals such as Tage Alter und Neuer Musik (Regensburg), New Opera Festival (Rome), Liszt Festival in Florida, International Val Tidone Competition and Festival (Italy), Primer Concurso Nacional De Piano - Claudio Herrera in Mexico, Four Corners Competition in Colorado and the International Conference on Piano Musical Arts and Pedagogy in Taiwan.

For more information, go to www.fitenko.com/pianoseries.

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