In the beginning of February young soloists of the Zakhar Bron School of Music, five violinists and a pianist, performed with the symphony orchestra Capella Sonorus in the concert hall “Upper city” in Minsk, Belarus. It was the second performance with orchestra in Minsk for the ZBSM students this semester.

Only four months ago, in the end of September 2019, the most advanced students of the Zakhar Bron School of Music appeared for the first time with the chamber orchestra in Minsk with a concert program called “Young Alpine Virtuosos” under the baton of Maestro Mourad Assuil. The success was overwhelming: the hall was sold out, the concert was covered on national television and the reception of the audience was extremely warm and enthusiastic.
Unsurprisingly, only several weeks later we were invited by the orchestra to organize the program’s sequel, “Young Alpine Virtuosos 2”. We were overjoyed and began to prepare the new performance.

The concert was opened by the 15-year old violinist Moe Zürcher. Moe presented an elegant and stylish interpretation of the Mozart’s famous Concerto number 4, KV 218. The next participant, 10-years old Nikita Koller, performed with an orchestra for the first time. He played Kreisler’s “Preludium and Allegro in the style of Pugnani” and accomplished this challenging task with confidence. To complete the first half of the concert Sophie Branson performed Wieniawski’s virtuosic 2nd Violin Concerto and Polonaise in D major, with the breath taking second movement of the Concerto being the lyrical highlight of the performance.

After the interval our young pianist Dan Blank swept the audience with his interpretation of the “Witches Dance” by Edward Macdowell. This performance marked the European premier of the version of this piece for solo piano with the accompaniment of a symphony orchestra. Renee Tu, an 11-years old virtuoso from China, presented the famous baroque Chaconne by Vitali and won the attention of the audience by her very powerful and moving play. The concert was closed by Ilva Eigus, who at 12 years of age is already a very experienced soloist. Ilva presented the 3rd Violin Concerto by Saint-Saëns and charmed the audience with the incredibly rich palette of colours and the maturity of sound which is unusual for such a young musician.