The Eastman Community Music School (ECMS) and Linkages of Rochester, Inc., will celebrate the connections between Rochester and Rochester’s Sister City of Veliky Novgorod with a concert at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 8, in Kilbourn Hall.
Held on the day after Russians celebrate Christmas according to the Julian calendar, the Russian Friendship Concert features Eastman students and faculty; the a cappella choral ensemble Musica Spei, which will perform sacred Russian music; and dancers from Rochester City Ballet/Timothy M. Draper Center for Dance Education, who will present excerpts from The Nutcracker.
Among the talented student performers are Stephanie Venturino, an undergraduate student saxophonist at the Eastman School of Music, and David Steinhardt, a guitar student in the Eastman Community Music School.
Venturino, who graduated last year from ECMS, has garnered top prizes in numerous competitions, including the Rochester Philharmonic League’s Young Artists Auditions, the David Hochstein Recital Competition, the Virtuosi Woodwind Competition, the MTNA New York State Senior Woodwind Competition, the MTNA Eastern Division Senior Woodwind Competition, the Jo Amish Young Artists Competition, and the Syracuse Friends of Chamber Music Competition. A recipient of the Eastman Community Music School’s prestigious Young Artist Award, Venturino has also soloed with the Penfield Symphony Orchestra.
Steinhardt appeared on NPR’s From the Top series in a program that was recorded in Boston in March 2014. In 2012, he placed first at the Montreal International Youth Guitar Competition, received honorable mention at the Great Lakes Adult Guitar Competition, and was one of 10 youth guitarists from around the world selected to compete in the Parkening International Youth Competition in Malibu, Calif. Steinhardt is a member of the Eastman Youth Guitar Ensemble, which won the 2012 Guitar Foundation of America Youth Ensemble Showcase and performed at the annual convention in Charleston, S.C.
The Russian Friendship Concert is free and open to the public, and will be followed by a reception on Cominsky Promenade.
Linkages of Rochester, Inc., is a volunteer organization that promotes professional, educational, and cultural exchanges with Veliky Novgorod.
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