“Pianist” Studio of South Ural State University took part in the “Talent. Music. Stage” Saint Petersburg International Festival and became one of the laureates.
Due to the difficult epidemiological situation, many contests are held in an online format. SUSU students Ekaterina Tarasova and Nina Kuleshova recorded a video of their performance and sent it to one of the contests. The results turned out to be so inspiring for the girls that they updated their videos of their performances and began sending those to other contests of higher level.
Under the guidance of an Honoured Cultural Worker of Russia Svetlana Ivanova the girls managed to become laureates of the 2nd degree in solo performances at the “Talent. Music. Stage” International Festival. The duet of the two piano players also received an award of the 2nd degree.
“Normally we ask to present our ensemble as a “Duet of Ekaterina Tarasova and Nina Kuleshova”. But in truth, we’re rather a trio. Svetlana Ivanova is a “ramrod” of our ensemble. It is thanks to her that we know exactly what we want, which path to take to achieve the set goals, and which tasks must be solved on our way towards them,” shared Nina Kuleshova.
Ekaterina and Nina have been performing as a duet for just a couple of months now: besides solo numbers, the girls prepared an a quatre mains pianoforte performance for the Spring at SUSU 2020 Student Festival. After the successful performance of the students at the festival, the leadership of the SUSU Recreation Centre supported the piano players and suggested try themselves at other music contests as well.
“Step by step, the number of our achievements increases. Our duet was awarded a certificate at a Moscow online contest #ЛюдиИграютМузыку (#PeoplePlayMusic), and as solo performers we were awarded Certificates of the 3rd degree. We are currently rehearsing new repertoire, and are moving towards new goals. We believe that the year ahead will be packed with events for us,” shared Ekaterina Tarasova.
The festival jury mostly comprised the leading specialists from universities in Saint Petersburg, honoured workers and leading experts in the field of culture, composers, musicians, performers, and teachers of creative specialities.