Duo Exceptionnel: From Baroque to Contemporary - gusli and piano recital

The winner of International and All-Russian competitions Olga Shishkina (gusli) & Olga Elbourn (piano)

WHEN: Saturday 19 October 2024 at 19:00

WHERE: The Chapel at Churchill College Storey’s Way Cambridge CB3 0DE 

FORMAT: in person

TICKETS: £15 (Standard), £10 (CamRuSS Members, students and concessions)

PROGRAMME

1. B. Pasquini. Toccata con lo Scherzo Del Cucco. 

2. A. Vivaldi. Le Printemps 1st movement.

3. H. Handel. Sonata Nr 6 E-major for violin and piano. 

4. L.V. Beethoven. 12 variations on a Russian theme for piano. 

5. K. Shakhanov. Lullaby. 

6. Y. Yocoh. Sakura: Theme and Variations.

7. C. Debussy. Estampes: “I - Pagodes”

8. I’m sitting on a little stone, a traditional Russian song

9. Greensleeves, a traditional English folk song

10. N. Rimsky-Korsakov. Dance of the Tumblers from “Snow Maiden”.

11. A. Shalov. Hey rock Semyon! 

12. V. Tikhov. Ural Dance.

* All material arranged for gusli and piano by O. Shishkina except Nr 5, 10, 11, 12.

Olga Shishkina is an accomplished music professional with over 20 years of experience on

the international music scene as a gusli and kantele artist. She performs, teaches, arranges, composes and does studio recording. Olga performed in some of the best venues in Russia and beyond: Conservatoire Rachmaninoff (Paris, France), La Maison russe des sciences et de la culture à Paris (Paris, France), Trinity Episcopal Church and Legacy Art Gallery (Santa Barbara, California), Mariinsky Concert Hall (St Petersburg, Russia), His Majesty's Theatre (Aberdeen, Scotland), Royal Swedish Opera (Stockholm, Sweden), and others.

She performed at the Cambridge Summer Music Festival in 2004 and played in a duo with Nicholas Collon, the principal conductor of Aurora Orchestra. In 2005 she performed at the Russian Music Festival organised by Clare College, Cambridge. Lately, she has been invited by the leading names of the music industry to

participate in soundtrack recording projects (“Moscow Noir” Sweden 2018, “Torchlight 3”

USA 2020). Composed music for the Finnish documentary “To Siberia with My Love” (dir. P.

Flinckenberg 2017).

Olga graduated summa cum laude from St. Petersburg Conservatory named after N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov where she studied gusli, piano, organ, and orchestral conducting (2008). Later, in 2012, she pursued

postgraduate studies at Sibelius Academy (Helsinki, Finland). In 2022 she graduated with the

highest grade from Berklee College of Music (Boston, Massachusetts).

Olga’s performing repertoire spans from early baroque and classical music to impressionism which are

her own transcriptions as well as her compositions for the movie.

Please check Olga’s page on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/olgagusli)

Olga also will be giving a lecture about gusli on October 21, 19:00. Please follow this link if you interested to attend - https://allevents.in/cambridge/gusli-from-archaic-to-the-present-day-a-talk-by-olga-shishkina/80003220217063?ref=smdl

Olga Elbourn (nee Samusenko) graduated with the highest honours from the N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory in Russia, as a concert pianist, piano teacher, accompanist and chamber ensemble player, in 2004.

After completing a postgraduate course at the St. Petersburg Conservatoire in 2006, for the next nine years, she held a post of the Senior Accompanist for Opera singing and Russian Folk instruments classes, working with some of the best-known opera singers and folk instrumentalists. On the concert platform she has collaborated with soloists of the leading opera theatres in various countries, and been a member of many chamber ensembles in Russia and Europe.

She was a prizewinner at numerous international competitions and a recipient of the prestigious Richard Wagner Scholarship in 2007 in Germany.

Since 2014 Olga has been living permanently in Cambridge, UK where she continues her extensive performing and teaching career. She is the Principal Accompanist of St. Ives Choral Society, regularly collaborates with various instrumentalists and singers for performances, and has a large class of piano students.

Host or Publisher The Cambridge Russian-Speaking Society (CamRuSS)