Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast #127!
Today's guests are Dina Ikhina and Denis Makhankov who are a family duo of young organists from Russia.
Yesterday the organists have performed for the first time in Vilnius St. Johns’ Church Organ and presented before the New Year's Eve a concert entitled "Farewell to Old Year", in which the audience enjoyed the works of J. S. Bach, P. Tchaikovsky, A. Chekalin, A. Pärt and other composers.
Dina was born in 1986 in Saratov, Denis – 1988 in Ivanovo. Both studied organ music in St. Petersburg under a well-known Russian Federation artist prof. D. Zaretski, later harpsichord under prof. I. Rosanov and have acquired postgraduate degrees in Music.
Since 2014 these organists perform together. The duo concert program consists invariable of pieces by modern composers.
Currently, the organists perform in Russia and throughout Europe, also teach at the St. Petersburg N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire and at city music schools, organize organ music festivals in Russia and Estonia. At the same time, the organists work in the famous Arts Palace in Kondopoga, Karelia, and also organize the annual “Grande Orgue” International Organ Music Festival.
Dina and Denis are among the founders and organizers of the project "Organ Concerts in Pechory". The project collects funds for the restoration of the historic Pechory (Pskov Region) organ of the St. Peter church. They were awarded the State Prize "National Recognition 2015" in the Initiative category (Pskov, 2016) and the Pskov Administration Award for this project.
In this conversation, Dina and Denis talk about their organ playing adventures and give such wonderful advice as not being afraid to try new things, trusting your ears, life-long study, consulting with experts and trying out many instruments with different acoustics.
We had this conversation at the restaurant so the environment is a bit noisy but since my guests talk rather slowly in English, I hope you will be able to follow it.
Listen to the conversation
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