Vassar Info News

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY-One of Russia's most prominent contemporary composers, Georgy Firtich, will be featured in the concert, "A Russian Night: Music for Piano and Voice by St. Petersburg composer Georgy Firtich," on Friday, September 25. Free and open to the public, the program will begin at 8pm in the Martel Recital Hall in the Skinner Hall of Music at Vassar College.

Composer and pianist Firtich will perform his music inspired by the poems of Paul Verlaine, the Russian Futurist poet Velimir Khlebnikov, as well as some other works, with soprano Olga Vorobiyova, a leading soloist of St. Petersburg Opera Theatre. Both Firtich and Vorobiyova are traveling from St. Petersburg, Russia, to the United States for this program.

Georgy Firtich has visited Vassar on two previous occasions. The first occasion was in 2003 during the celebration of St. Petersburg's tercentennial; the second in 2007, when he composed a new version of the lost score for the legendary Futurist opera Victory Over the Sun (1913).

Nikolai Firtich, associate professor of Russian Studies, noted that, "The Vassar production of the Victory Over the Sun was phenomenally successful and attracted a large and enthusiastic audience.  It was also in the center of attention of two international academic conferences (one held at Vassar, another in St. Petersburg)."  A bilingual collection of scholarly articles based on these conferences was recently published in New York; and is supplemented with a DVD recording of the production.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Georgy Firtich is one of Russia's most prominent contemporary composers.  He is the president of St. Petersburg's Contemporary Music Association and has been for many years among the leading avant-garde composers in Russia.  He is also a professor of composition at St. Petersburg's Herzen University. Firtich also composes music for films, having written soundtracks to over 70 films, several of them being major blockbusters.

Soprano Olga Vorobiyova, a leading soloist of St. Petersburg Opera Theatre, is the winner of several international competitions and a versatile singer whose repertoire ranges from major classical operas to Jewish folk songs and contemporary music.

The Department of Russian Studies and the Department of Music are co-sponsors of the concert, with additional support from Office of International Programs and the Office of the Dean of the Faculty.

Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations at Vassar should contact the Office of Campus Activities at (845) 437-5370. Without sufficient notice, appropriate space and/or assistance may not be available. Directions to the Vassar campus are available online.

Vassar College is a highly selective, coeducational, independent, residential liberal arts college founded in 1861.