Orchestra season opens with acclaimed pianist

Vadym Kholodenko to perform at Powers Auditorium Saturday

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The Youngstown Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Randall Craig Fleischer, will open its 89th season Saturday at Powers Auditorium with special guest Vadym Kholodenko, the reigning Cliburn Gold Medalist.

Kholodenko will perform the Prokofiev Fourth Piano Concerto. Other selections on the all-Russian program are Tchaikovsky’s March Salve and Sixth Symphony.

Prokofiev’s Concerto No. 4 is written for left-hand only and was commissioned by Paul Wittgenstein, an Austrian concert pianist who lost his right hand during the battle of Ukraine during World War I. The orchestra is performing this concerto for the first time in its history.

In June 2013, Kholodenko received the Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Gold Medal at the 14th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas. Prior to his Van Cliburn win, Kholodenko had played in recital and as a soloist with orchestras throughout Ukraine, Russia, the United States, China, Japan, France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Finland, Czech Republic, Romania, Poland, Lithuania and Israel.

Not restricted to solo recitals and playing as a soloist with orchestra, Kholodenko is a dedicated performer of chamber music. In addition to the Cliburn medal, he has won the competition prize for chamber music performance with Cesar Frank’s piano quintet.

Kholodenko was born in 1986 in Kiev, Ukraine. The first musician in his family, he enrolled at Kiev’s Mykola Lysenko Special Music School in 1994.

At the age of 13, Kholodenko made his first appearances in the United States, China, Hungary and Croatia. He was awarded the Russian Youth National Prize “Triumph” in 2004. A year later, he moved to Moscow to study at the Moscow State Conservatory where he recently accepted a teaching position.

Kholodenko lives in Moscow with his wife and young daughter.

The opening night concert is sponsored by Talmer Bank and Trust and the Youngstown Symphony Society Board of Directors.

After the concert, patrons are invited to the Overture Lobby for After Hours, where casual dining and beverages in a cabaret setting will be available with music provided by the Jeff Bremer Group.

At 3 p.m. Oct. 4, the orchestra and Fleischer will present its first Stained Glass concert of the season at North-Mar Church, 3855 E. Market St., Warren.

In addition to selections by the church choir, the orchestra will perform Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No. 6, excerpt from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, Tchaikovsky’s Waltz from Swan Lake, Bach’s “Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring,” the Minute from Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony, Dvorak Slavonic Dance No. 1, the Bizet Farandole from L’arlesienne Suite, “Saturday Night Waltz” from Copland’s “Rodeo,” and Faure’s “Pavane.”

Stained Glass Concerts are free and open to the public.

Stained Glass Concerts are presented through support from the Charles W. and Sarah J. Syak Foundation and the Howard and Jeanne Karr Foundation.