1991 Project Presents: Polina Chaika, violin and Askar Ishangaliyev, cello
The 1991 Project presents a program of duets and solo pieces for violin and cello, which reveals the beauty and technical diversity of both instruments and the original approach to them by composers of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Program
Leonid Hrabovsky (b. 1935), Hlas I for Cello solo, 1990
Zoltan Almashi (b. 1975), Sonata for Violin and Cello, 2013/2022
Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967), Duo for Violin and Cello, Op.7, 1914
Leonid Hrabovsky (b. 1935), Sonata for Violin solo, op. 8, 1959
Maurice Ravel (1875 -1937), Sonata for Violin and Cello, M. 73, 1920-1922
Musicians
Polina Chaika is a Ukrainian orchestra, chamber and solo violinist. Her professional orchestra experience started in 2014 as a tutti first violin at the Odesa State Opera. In parallel with the orchestral activity, she was a permanent resident of the department of chamber ensemble of the Odesa National Music Academy and had to stop this work due to the full-scale war. Since 2019 Polina was also a solo violinist of Odesa Philharmonic, performing in various venues in Ukraine. Thanks to the Philharmonie de Paris mission project Polina Chaika got an opportunity to develop her professional career in France. Since September 2022 Polina has been a tutti violinist of the Orchestre National de France. In January 2024 Polina also started to collaborate with the Orchestra Dijon Bourgogne.
Askar Ishangaliyev was born in 1985 in Almaty, Kazakhstan, where he began studying the cello at the age of 7. Noted for his musical abilities, he decided to continue his studies in France where he entered the class of Philippe Muller in Aulnay Sous Bois and then the CNSM in Paris. Askar notably plays in trio with Jean-Noël Molard and Jean Angliviel, or as a soloist with the Toulouse Chamber Orchestra, the Orchester de Tours, Halle Staatskappele, the Lille National Orchestra. He is supported by the Meyer Foundation and ADAMI. Actively performing contemporary repertoire, Askar Ishangaliev has worked with musicians such as Pierre Boulez, Mauricio Kagel, Peter Eötvös, Michaël Lévinas, Bruno Mantovani, Martin Matalon and Heinz Holliger, and since 2008 he has been the cello soloist of the Le Balcon ensemble.
Organizers
The 1991 Project is a non-profit association whose purpose is to promote Ukrainian music in France and in the Western world. It is led and inspired by Anna Stavychenko, a musicologist, music critic and classical music producer. The production of concerts, cultural, and educational events gives visibility to the Ukrainian musical repertoire, in its tight connections to European cultural traditions. Most of the musicians with whom the 1991 project collaborates are participants of the Philharmonie de Paris mission project that helps Ukrainian musicians exiled in France.
This series is co-organized by the Institute for Ideas and Imagination, the Columbia Global Paris Center, the 1991 Project. With the support of the Embassy of Ukraine in France and Les Amis de la culture ukrainienne en France.
