Descendant of Irish King Arthur performed a concert at ASU

22 December 2015 Public Relations Department
The performance of famous Irish pianist Miceal O’Rourke, who was awarded the Chopin Medal in recognition of his outstanding Chopin playing, was held on December 19 at ASU Concert Hall. It seems to be one of the brightest outcomes of the Cultural Education Center’s activities in 2015.

Rector of M.I. Glinka Novosibirsk State Conservatoire Konstantin M. Kurlenya visited ASU together with the musician and met with ASU Vice-Rector for International Affairs Development Roman I. Raikin, director of the Cultural Education Center, Faculty of Arts dean Larisa I. Nekhvyadovitch, director of Altai State Musical College Svetlana I. Prokofyeva, lecturers and students of Faculty of Arts right before the beginning of the performance. In the course of the meeting they discussed the prospects for further cooperation between the conservatoire, classical university and musical college in educational, scientific and concert activities.

Konstantin M. Kurlenya thanked the colleagues for the warm reception and noted that he and the educational establishment he is in charge of are open for interaction and collaboration:

“During the academic year, we realize about 10 major international projects and academic mobility program, in the framework of which we cooperate with many Russian and foreign universities actively, organize join concerts in particular. We have established a strong communication with Barnaul in this area.”

The meeting participants exchanged their thoughts on the possible ways of further cooperation. Particularly, there was a suggestion in the framework of academic mobility program to acquaint ASU Faculty of Arts students with the conservatoire’s educational process.

This was followed by the main event of the evening – the piano music concert of Irish pianist Miceal O’Rourke.
The pianist gave his performances at the most prestigious world’s stages, played as a soloist with such famous philharmonic and chamber orchestras as the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra and so on.

Native of Dublin and the University of Dublin graduate Miceal O’Rourke has an extensive concert repertoire at his disposal ranging from J.S Bach to W. Lutoslawski, but he is mostly famous for his sophisticated interpretation of F. Chopin, C. Debussy and M. Ravel.

“Gold medalist of International Chopin Society, famous Irish pianist, educator Miceal O’Rourke played the glorious masterpieces of classical music on our stage for the first time. He introduced his interpretation of F. Chopin, L. Beethoven, M. Ravel to the public. The audience was impressed by the artistic temperament of the Irish virtuoso, by acoustic palette and musical compositions’ significant meaning. After the program was over, the audience could not stop applauding,” shared her impressions of the concert Larisa I. Nekhvyadovitch.

After the performance, interaction with the audience, lecturers and students of the classic university the guests lest their notes in the Honored Guests Book of ASU Cultural Education Center. In particular, Miceal O’Rourke thanked the university’s authorities for the hospitality:

“It was a great pleasure to come to Barnaul and play a concert. Thank you for organizing it. I hope I will come back one day.”

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