Celebrating Alexander Braginsky: An Evening of Music at TMORA

Join us in wishing renowned pianist and teacher Alexander Braginsky a very happy 80th birthday with a special concert at The Museum of Russian Art.

You'll enjoy an evening of piano music featuring former and current students of Professor Alexander Braginsky performing music by J.S. Bach, L. van Beethoven, M. Bruch, F. Chopin, D. Kabalevsky, F. Liszt, F. Mendelssohn, M. Ponte, F. Poulenc, S. Rachmaninoff, and R. Schumann.

Former Students (in alphabetical order):Brian Billion, Irina and Julia Elkina, Daniel Eras, Denis Evstuhin, Ines Guanchez, Amy and Sara Hamann, Soojung Hong, Ivan Konev, Oleg Levin, Amos Lucidi, Anton Melnichenko, Osip Nikiforov, Margeret Wang.

Current Students (in alphabetical order):Hui Chen, Sujin Cho, Hyein Choi, Yura Jung, Zirong Liu, Emma Lu, Ruijie Mao, Gideon Scheeler, Ella Wan, Ruizhi Wang, Fuman Yang.

Special thanks to Denis Evstuhin and Schmitt Music.

All galleries and TMORA Shop will be open. Tea and sweets will add to the celebration.

TICKETS: $25 General Admission | $20 TMORA Members

Doors open at 5:30 PM | Concert begins at 6:00 PM

Alexander Braginsky was born and educated in Moscow. He received his first piano lessons from his mother, a well-known concert pianist. At the age of six he began study with Alexander Goldenweiser, a close friend of Leo Tolstoy and a classmate of Rachmaninov and Scriabin. It was through Goldenweiser, with whom he spent 12 years as his youngest student, that Braginsky came into contact with the great 19th-century romantic tradition. After Goldenweiser's death, he continued to study with Theodore Gutman, another illustrious representative of the "Golden Age" of the school of Russian piano.

Braginsky's repertoire extends from Baroque to avant-garde. He performed over twenty world premieres, most of which were works commissioned and written for him, including music by Stephen Paulus, Libby Larsen and Paul Fetler's Piano Concerto, commissioned by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Braginsky performed extensively in the former USSR, Israel, England, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Taiwan, the People's Republic of China, Spain, France and the United States. The London Times characterized Braginsky's playing as "splendid" and the Chicago Sun-Times called him "... a pianist with a fine, commanding sound that he can also use with great delicacy and expression."

Braginsky has recorded for DDF, Sound StarTone and d'Note labels. He has appeared repeatedly on BBC, National Public Radio, RTB-BRT and other radio stations throughout the world.

Braginsky was artist-in-residence in Churchill College, England in 1981 and 1986. He is Professor on the faculty of the International Music Summer Course in Vienna, Austria, and has given numerous masterclasses in Europe, Asia and North America. Many of his students have won national and international competitions. In the summer of 2006, Braginsky served on the faculty of the International Keyboard Institute & Festival in New York City.

Braginsky is on the piano faculty at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, where he works with a select group of piano students from around the world, and he frequently judges International and National Piano Competitions. He is the Artistic Director of the Musicians in Debut International (MIDI), as well as the Founding President and the Artistic Director of the International Piano-e-Competition.

Host or Publisher The Museum of Russian Art