Top.Mail.Ru
© Olya Runyova Ⓘ
Altos

Elena Shestakova

In the choir since 2013

WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO THE WORLD OF MUSIC?
Music has surrounded me for as long as I can remember. My grandmother used to sing when doing the housework. My aunt — a professional pianist — set up music nights, and I constantly performed at various children’s events. However, I only felt the strong urge to take music seriously around the time I was at music college. That’s where I got introduced to all sorts of music — old, ethnic, modern. This sparked my love towards it.
WHAT KIND OF MUSIC DO YOU PREFER NOW?
My playlist has all sorts of music in it. I often take a more thoughtful re-listen to classical pieces by Tchaikovsky, Mahler and Beethoven. But sometimes I want to hear something completely different: say, Apocalyptica or even pop music.
WHAT DO YOU VALUE THE MOST IN WORKING WITH MUSICAETERNA?
First of all, it’s the opportunity to work with Teodor Currentzis. Maestro is one of the few people who are able to hear music differently — and to teach that. I have no idea how he manages to do that. “The composer has outlined all the nuances in the score,” he usually says. “Let’s just follow what’s written there.” But as a result, the piece sounds in a different way. For example, Maestro has re-introduced me to Mozart’s “Requiem”. It’s one of the most famous academic music pieces, and I had thought I knew every single note in it — but after a few rehearsals, I realized it was totally unfamiliar to me. By the way, Maestro’s magical ability extends to revealing people’s undiscovered talents as well.
WHAT IS YOUR DREAM?
Like any professional, I strive to get even better at my craft. I want to sing in a way that I find even more satisfying. When you feel that inner satisfaction, you know you’re on the right way.

musicAeterna choir events

+
June 10, 21:00
St. Petersburg | Dom Radio
IM ÄTHER. Concert of choral music by Andreas Moustoukis
Choral concert

Andreas Moustoukis (b. 1971)
“Liturgy of St. Leontius” for mixed choir (2021)

Im Äther for mixed choir, 4 double basses, electronics, percussion and the ondes Martenot (2023, world premiere)

performers:
musicAeterna Choir and Orchestra Soloists

Conductor Vitaly Polonsky

MusicAeterna resident composer Andreas Moustoukis presents the result of his two-year work at Dom Radio. Together with the “Liturgy of St. Leontius”, fragments of which have been repeatedly heard in the concerts by the musicAeterna Choir, on June 6, the world premiere of his new composition – IM ÄTHER (“In Ether”) for mixed choir, 4 double basses, electronics, percussion and the ondes Martenot will take place. This is a micropolyphonic work based on the poems by Paul Celan interspersed with quotations from world cinema.

The author explains the essence of the new work as follows: “Im Äther (στον αιθέρα) is the need to breath out in the stratosphere were the gravitation is low and all the time is becoming one and a single moment of a crystal silence. The past, the present and the future stop to exist between then and now in a violent and compensating ‘why’, they just exist timelessly in the cosmic black as if they were small red shining dots of love, the tears of eternity.”

Photo: Selena Zhigulskaya