New geography of Vladimir Horowitz Contest
Two years are but a short period to prepare for a prestigious international contest, the more so if it bears the name of Vladimir Horowitz and rates with the most coveted ones in the CIS states. The pause between the previous third and this fourth contest was used by the organizing committee to “build up their capacity.” Apart from the now traditional “summer musical soirees” and Performing Excellence School, this year’s program will feature the Summer Music Academy, planned as a school modification. For two weeks in the second half of July, Academy classes will be conducted on the campus of the Gliere State Music College of Kyiv. After undergoing a full course of training, the participants shall each receive a certificate and winners of contests held as part of the curriculum will be issued appropriate documents and prizes. The teaching staff will include celebrities such as the pianist Theresa Dussaut (France), member of the jury at the Horowitz, Lysenko, Tchaikovsky, and other prestigious contests; tenor Giovanni Fallezi (Italy), an acknowledged bel canto authority; cellist Vladimir Panteleyev (US); violinist Jacob Lakerowitz (Canada); flutist Udo Heitzman (Germany), et al.
It is also true that academy tuition is expensive (the cost includes first class hotel accommodation, food, lease of concert audiences, etc.), yet the participants are entitled to cut rate arrangements, depending on the results of their previous qualification. Admission is granted without age qualifications.
Horowitz laureates increasingly often tour Ukraine. Recently, they performed in Kharkiv, Poltava, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson. A series of concerts will be given in Lviv, in mid-April, featuring 13 current entrants. The schedule is very tight, as each must appear in a solo two-part concert. Another large-scale project is planned in Kyiv, set up by jury member and pianist Mykola Suk (US). He proposes a festival of forgotten music, made up of works by the so-called second echelon composers — Czerny, Blumenfeld, Taudig, and Godowsky — to be performed by Horowitz laureates and Mr. Suk.
And of course, the main event, a CD called A Trip to the Vladimir Horowitz Contest. It will contain detailed information about the contest (participants, members of the jury, organizing committee, sponsors, and background) and one or several compositions performed by the laureates of all previous contests. The musical part of the disk is very sizable: 350 min. (about 10 ordinary record albums). The project’s author, Oleh Koval, has spent over half a year working on it. The result is a unique and long-awaited product.
The Horowitz contest has a page on the Internet — www.horowitzv.org — which is constantly updated. It can also be used for an application. The next step planned by the contest’s leadership is a program called Musical Contests of Ukraine, in line with the interregional cultural exchange project, containing information about all the musical contests practiced in Ukraine.
