The legacy of Florence Price, a composer of great talent, finds itself at a crossroads in 2024 with Boulder Symphony’s performance of great symphonies from neglected and traditionally underrepresented composers and the 2009 discovery of a treasure trove of her works at her summer home in St. Anne, Illinois—where scores were strewn on the floor after an apparent robbery. The home’s new owners contacted the University of Arkansas and donated the scores to Price’s archive.
An important step in the long march for equality is to showcase voices that symphonic music has failed to represent in the past by performing, recording, teaching, and sharing the life and work of Florence Price.
In addition to Price’s Symphony No. 1—a Colorado premiere—Boulder Symphony will perform Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, in its longstanding relationship with the International Keyboard Odyssiad & Festival Competition (IKOF). The 2024 gold medal recipient of the IKOF Complete Concerto Division, Artem Kuznetsov, will dazzle the audience with his passionate and virtuosic performance of this piano concerto.
Program:
– Antonín Dvořák – “Slavonic Dance” No. 1 in C major, Op. 46
– Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23, featuring Artem Kuznetsov, Gold Medal, Complete Concerto Division, International Keyboard Odyssiad & Festival Competition
– Florence Price – Symphony No. 1 in E minor (Colorado premiere)
Devin Patrick Hughes, Conductor
Artem Kuznetsov, Piano
Artem’s vocation as a musician was destined from the beginning. Both his parents taught music at a local music school—his father, general musical literacy, and his mother, piano: his first teacher. However, after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, his family was obliged to turn to agriculture to survive. His earliest years were spent raising sheep, cows, and bees, and cultivating a large expanse of land to provide for the basic needs of his family. During this challenging time, he attended a local school for general education and practiced piano when he was not milking cows, endlessly herding recalcitrant sheep, enduring painful bee stings, or tilling soil.
His calling to a life in music intensified at the age of fourteen, when he visited the Museum-Estate of Sergei Rachmaninoff in the village of Ivanovka, which in a twist of fate is located just one hour from his home in the village of Novopokrovskoye. The experience of hearing recordings of Rachmaninoff performing his own compositions, and the opportunity to play the same piano as the master, lit a fire of inspiration that has guided him ever since. He spent countless summer hours immersed in the fertile atmosphere of Ivanovka, practicing on that iconic piano, and meeting leading musicians and activists in many fields of the arts. This affected him profoundly, plunging him into the very foundations of Russian music and culture and contributing greatly to his overall musical identity.
However, due to family reasons, he did not go through the Moscow music education system, as did many young musicians of that era. Instead, he went to the United States to continue his studies on a full scholarship, and thus he was able to forge his own individual path and performance style, resulting in a unique blending of Russian and western musical traditions, which greatly enriched his artistic approach.
Artem has been acclaimed for his artistry, virtuosity, lyricism, and electrifying energy, and on his musical journey he has won multiple prizes and international piano competitions, including the Carles and Sofia Piano Competition and Santa Cecilia Piano Competition, among many. Currently, he performs in major concert halls around the world and has been featured on several radio and TV stations in the USA and globally. He has also released several albums on major recording labels, most recently KNC Classical, which has garnered critical acclaim. For his contribution to art, Artem was honored not only by Texas State Senator Brandon Creighton but also appointed as Emissary of the Muses of the City of San Antonio, Texas, by Mayor Ron Nirenberg.
Artem acknowledges with gratitude his major teachers, which include his mother Anna, Stanislav Ioudenitch, Jon Kimura Parker, and currently Anton Nel.
When he is not on tour performing, he resides in Texas, where he holds a Teaching Assistant position at the University of Texas while completing his Doctorate in Musical Arts.