NYC’s Eurasia Festival Commissions New Work by Russian Composer

The Eurasia Festival continues its first season with the world premiere of a new work by Russian composer Polina Nazaykinskaya. Commissioned by the Festival, Dances of Memory, a work for cello and piano, will be performed at The National Opera Center in New York by Russian cellist Adrian Daurov and the festival’s Artistic Director, Aza Sydykov. The concert is scheduled for Saturday evening, December 16^th at 7:30.

 Also featured on the program will be Beethoven’s Twelve Handel Variations, Mendelssohn’s Cello Sonata No. 2 in D Major and Prokofiev’s Cello Sonata in C Major.

Composer/violinist Polina Nazaykinskaya was born in Togliatti, the automobile manufacturing center of Russia situated on the Volga River. She composed her first large-scale work at age 14. She has since written music for both chamber ensembles and full orchestras, as well as art songs, film scores, musical theater pieces, an opera, and, most recently, her first symphony entitled April Song.

 Her music has been performed by the Minnesota Orchestra; the Russian National Orchestra; the Hermitage Orchestra and Chorus of St Petersburg, Russia; the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Russia; and the United States Army Orchestra among many other prestigious ensembles. She has collaborated with top conductors, including Osmo Vänskä, Teodor Currentzis, Fabio Mastrangelo, and Hannu Lintu. Her music has received rave reviews from the word press, including The New York Times.

 Nazaykinskaya has received numerous national and international awards, including the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans. She graduated from Moscow’s prestigious Tchaikovsky Conservatory and continued studies at the Yale School of Music. While earning a Doctorate in Composition at City University of New York she is currently also an Adjunct Instructor of Composition at Brooklyn College Conservatory. 

 Cellist Adrian Daurov made his debut as a soloist at the age of 15 with the St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra in Russia. He has since performed at both Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall. He toured as soloist with the St. Petersburg Chamber Orchestra performing in Moscow, Warsaw and numerous cities in Germany. He was appointed principal cellist and soloist with the Bayreuth Youth Festival Orchestra under the direction of Peter Gulke. He was a featured artist in a gala Carnegie Hall concert celebrating Russia’s Independence Day, sharing the stage with opera legends Elena Obratztsova and Vladimir Galouzine.

 Daurov also serves as principal cellist of the Chamber Orchestra of New York and with the award-winning Voxare Quartet, an ensemble he founded himself. He has been heard in performance on WNYC, WQXR and NTV-America and has made TV appearances on Regis & Kelly Live, Good Morning America, The Late Show with David Letterman and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

 Not limited to appearances as a classical musician, Daurov has also played shows with the likes of Alicia Keys, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, Josh Groban, Burt Bacharach, The Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Sarah Brightman and the European rock-bands Sigur Ros, First Aid Kit and Break of Reality. He is also featured on a recent album by the young NYC-based jazz star Romain Collin.

 The Eurasia Festival’s Artistic Director, internationally celebrated pianist Aza Sydykov, will be performing with Daurov. Sydykov is a native of Kyrgyzstan and, like composer Nazaykinskaya, a graduate of Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Conservatory

 The Eurasia Festival focuses on introducing to the New York public music and musicians from Russia, the Baltics, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Festival events are in intimate, salon-like settings at one of the City’s artistic hotspots, Opera America’s National Opera Center. Audiences are invited to meet, mingle and chat with the visiting artists during elegant wine and dessert intermissions.

 Sydykov’s goals with the festival are “to contribute to New York’s great tradition of cultural diversity and to promote dialogue between the United States and the nations and cultures of Eastern Europe and Asia.”

 The Eurasia Festival is sponsored by Olympia Arts Productions, headed by operatic soprano Nikoleta Rallis. She promises “Our festival events will provide a source of high quality performances with the added bonus of the chance to make new artistic friends in a comfortable setting.”

 The festival’s 2017-2018 season will also feature recitals by internationally acclaimed pianists Pavel Nersessian, Vyacheslav Gryaznov, Nikita Mndoyants.

Tickets for all Eurasia Festival concerts are available at www.eurasiafestival.org or by phone at 646-946-9812. The ticket price of $35 includes admission to the concert and to the intermission receptions.