Cello Sonata in C major, Op. 119.………………………………………………………………Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)
1. Andante grave
2. Moderato
3. Allegro, ma non troppo
Spiegel im Spiegel………………………………………………………………………………………………….……Arvo Pärt (b. 1935)
Dört Şehir (Four Cities) for violoncello and piano…..………………………………………..Fazıl Say (b. 1970)
1. Sivas
2. Hopa
3. Ankara
4. Bodrum
Praised for his versatility and soulful expressive style, Serafim Smigelskiy actively performs on both baroque and modern cellos. Serafim has toured four continents as a soloist and chamber musician, appearing with the Jupiter Chamber Players, Trinity Baroque, Sebastians, El Mundo, New York Baroque Incorporated, NOVUS NY, Frisson and the Argento Chamber Ensemble, among others. Serafim has performed as principal cellist with the Juilliard Orchestra, Pegasus, Experiential Orchestra and the Kansas City Philharmonic. Between 2014 and 2021, while he served as a member of the Tesla Quartet, he appeared on some of the world’s most prestigious stages, including Wigmore Hall, the Esterhazy Palace and the Mecklenburg-Vorprommern Festival; and the quartet released two award-winning albums.
His love of early music and fascination with historical performance practice led him to study baroque cello with Phoebe Carrai at the Juilliard Historical Performance Department and to perform alongside Robert Mealy, Monica Huggett, William Christie, Nicholas McGegan and Avi Stein. A passionate advocate of new music, Serafim has given numerous world-premiere performances guided by composers such as Arvo Pärt, Chaya Czernowin, Georg Friedrich Haas, Mathias Pintscher, Magnus Lindberg, Jessie Montgomery and Ellen Reid. He has also studied with celebrated cellists, such as Mstislav Rostropovich, Natalia Gutman, Laurence Lesser, Colin Carr, Martin Storey and Richard Aaron.
Born and raised in Saint Petersburg, he trained at the Rimsky-Korsakov College, Saint Petersburg State Conservatory, Park University International Center for Music and The Juilliard School. He took first place at the Russian State’s Russian Music Competition and won top prize at Salzburger Festspiele. With the Tesla Quartet Serafim also won top prize at Banff International String Quartet Competition and Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition.
When he’s not performing, rehearsing or practicing, Serafim composes electronic music as Faremis Sound. He also engineers and directs audiobooks with his wife, author and narrator Sierra Prasada, as HiSierrafim Audio. Based in Brooklyn, he enjoys birding, windsurfing, photography and reading. He became an American citizen in 2021.
Born into a Tashkent (Uzbekistan) musical family, Lolita Lisovskaya-Sayevich began studying piano at the age of 4. In 1985 she entered the Uspensky Central Music School in Tashkent. In 1993 she started attending a private school for young musicians in Moscow, that same year she received first prize at the Chopin International Piano Competition in Göttingen, Germany. She entered the Tchaikovsky Special Music School in 1995, and two years later was accepted to the Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory under the tutelage of Vera Gornostaeva, with whom she continued postgraduate study from 2002 to 2004. Lisovskaya-Sayevich also studied with Stanislav Ioudenitch at Park University.
In 1996 Lisovskaya-Sayevich received first prize in the Nikolai Rubinstein International Piano Competition, and later she won first prize at the Iowa Piano International Competition in 2007. She was awarded scholarships from the Rostropovich Foundation, the Spivakov Foundation and the Nikolai Petrov Foundation. She has also earned the laureate designation from the international program “New Names,” and the festival “Virtuoso 2000” in St. Petersburg, Russia. Lisovskaya-Sayevich has recorded at the Hessen Radio Station in Frankfurt, Germany, and at Orfei Radio in Moscow.
Lisovskaya-Sayevich has presented numerous solo recitals and has played as a soloist with orchestras in Austria, France, Japan, Spain, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Russia. She has participated in many music festivals, including the Bashmet Festival in Tours, France, “Wave 2000” in Japan, International Musical Arts Institute in Maine (USA), Killington Music Festival in Vermont (USA), “Ars Longa” and “Primavera Classica” in Moscow. She has collaborated with renowned musicians such as Daniel Muller-Shott, Shmuel Ashkenazy, and members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra among many others. She now performs extensively in chamber music ensembles.
Lisovskaya-Sayevich is the Director of Collaborative Piano at the International Center for Music at Park University