Latvian musicians – cellist Margarita Balanas and a violinist Roberts Balanas received a prestigious scholarship from the Royal Academy of Music in London. Also, both musicians have just released their debut albums.
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This year, the Royal Academy of Music in London is celebrating its 200th anniversary. In honor of this event, a “Two Hundred Years Scholarship” was introduced in 2018, thanks to an anonymous donation of £ 1.7 million. This is the most prestigious scholarship of the academy and this year the winners were Margarita and Roberts Balanas.
At the end of last year, both musicians released their debut albums in collaboration with the internationally renowned Linn Records.
At the heart of Margarita Balana’s debut album is Camilla Sensans’ first cello concert, recorded in collaboration with British conductor Ben Palmer and the London Academy of Music String Orchestra.
With Margarita Balan’s cello by Charles Adolphe Gand, this Sensans piece was premiered in 1873 when it was performed by cellist Auguste Tolbecque.
The disc also includes other compositions by Sensans. Together with Elizabeth Gulbi, a Latvian harpist studying at the Royal Academy of Music in London, Margarita Balanas recorded the composition “Gulbis” – from Kamila Sensāns’ “Animal Carnival”. With the internationally acclaimed Chinese pianist Ke Ma, Sensans’ Second Sonata for cello and piano, Priére, and “Tango” from the miniature opera “Lola” were recorded.
In his debut album, Roberts Balanas reveals the meeting points of classical music and jazz in the works of Nikolai Kapustin, Maurice Ravel and Dmitry Shostakovich. Playing different genres is no stranger to Robert Balan. A couple of weeks ago, visitors to Vidzeme Concert Hall “Cēsis” could also appreciate it, where the musician played pop arrangements for electric violin.
Together with the Chinese pianist and winner of several international competitions in Siqian Li, Robert Balanas recorded Nikolai Kapustin’s virtuoso sonata for violin and piano (1992), which reflects the composer’s experience working as a jazz pianist in Moscow in the 1950s and 1960s. This work is supplemented by two Shostakovich miniatures from the composer’s cycle of compositions “24 Preludes”.
The album also features Ravel’s recognizable “Pavane pour une infante defunte” and the Second Violin Sonata, written in the blues style by the composer in 1923. “
Margarita Balanas is an internationally known Latvian cellist who actively performs both in Latvia and in other countries around the world. She has won many international concerts, performed at prestigious concert venues and collaborated with many outstanding musicians and bands.
Roberts Balanas not only virtuoso interprets classical compositions, but has also gained recognition for his own performances of popular and rock music for violin. In the summer of 2020, the violinist earned widespread media attention with the news that Sir Elton John himself had appreciated the young musician’s performance in arranging his song “I’m Stil Standing.”
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