Russian Pianist Alexander Ghindin to Perform Mussorgsky for Chamber Music Society of Detroit Debut

Russian pianist Alexander Ghindin makes his Chamber Music Society of Detroit series debut with a blockbuster recital program highlighted by Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, Saturday, November 19, 2016 at 8:00 PM.

The concert takes place at Seligman Performing Arts Center, located at 22305 West 13 Mile Road (at 13 Mile Road) in Beverly Hills. Tickets, priced at $32 - $64 for adults and $16 - $32 for students, are available by phone at 248-855-6070 or online at www.CMSDetroit.org.

The program includes Liszt's "Venezia e Napoli" from Années de Pèlerinage, Book II, Schumann's Symphonic Etudes, and concludes with Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, which the composer was inspired to write after attending a memorial exhibition of paintings and drawings by artist Viktor Hartmann, who had been a friend of his. The piece consists of ten musical portraits bound together by a promenade theme that depicts the gallery-goer strolling between paintings. The piece is well known in its orchestral version, made by Maurice Ravel in 1922. Mr. Ghindin's recital offers the relatively rare opportunity to hear this familiar music performed in its original version.

A pre-concert lecture at 6:45 PM is open to ticket holders free of charge. The talk will focus on Pictures at an Exhibition and will include slides of the Viktor Hartmann artworks that inspired the piece. The lecture will be given by M. J. Albacete, Executive Director Emeritus of the Canton (Ohio) Museum of Art, and currently an Adjunct Professor at Kent State University teaching the History of Architecture. Over the decades Mr. Albacete amassed a vast collection of concert music on vinyl, CDs and DVDs, and his knowledge of classical music earned him engagements as a pre-concert lecturer with the Canton Symphony Orchestra, Akron Symphony Orchestra, and the Cleveland Orchestra.

A native of Moscow, pianist Alexander Ghindin has established himself as a seasoned artist and a major force on the international piano scene. In 1994 at age 17, he became the youngest winner ever of the prestigious International Tchaikovsky Competition, later winning Second Prize at Brussels' Queen Elisabeth Competition and First Prize at the 2007 Cleveland International Piano Competition. Mr. Ghindin's current season includes over 100 performances throughout the U.S., Europe and Russia.

He has gone on to appear as soloist with such orchestras as the London and Munich Philharmonic Orchestras, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Orchestre de Paris, Rotterdam Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra de Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Israel Chamber Orchestra, Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra (with which he has also toured the United States) as well as the orchestras of Toronto, Moscow and Prague. Alexander Ghindin has appeared in many of the world's most distinguished concert venues, among them Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall and Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall in New York City, Washington's John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, London's Barbican Centre, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, Paris' Salle Gaveau, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and Théâtre du Châtelet and Tokyo's Sumida Triphony Hall.

Alexander Ghindin has recorded over 24 CDs on the labels of Capriccio, CD Accord, Decca, DML Classics, Naxos, Piano Classics, Tri-M Classics, and Ondine. He has also appeared on television and radio throughout the United States, Europe and Japan.

Since 2006, Mr. Ghindin has been Artistic Director of his own concert series at one of Russia's most distinguished concert venues, the Svetlanov Hall of the Moscow International Performing Arts Center.