Join Margarita Rovenskaya for a journey through the world of Czech music! This recital will feature the music of Dvorak, Smetana, Janacek, and Ivana Loudova, with each composer showcasing their use of Czech history, language, fairy tales, folk dance, and folk song.
These composers expanded musical forms to include dances such as dumkas, furiants, polkas and sousedskas, using new harmonies and creating melodies inspired by the countryside, language, and traditions around them. These works embody their nationalistic spirit and the Czech identity within the classical tradition. This recital will illustrate the folk harmonies, forms, and spirit of Czech music.
Pianist Margarita Rovenskaya has performed extensively in the US and abroad, with performances in Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall, Merkin Hall at the Kaufman Center, Zimmerli Museum, Ukrainian Museum, Teatro Machiavelli in Sicily, and Salmagundi Art Gallery, among others. Prizewinner of the WPTA Finland International Competition, Constantine the Great International Competition, American Music Talent Competition, Mary Smart International Concerto Competition, and Chopin Society Malaysia Competition, Margarita has also performed and studied internationally at festivals such as the Sicily International Piano Competition, Tel Hai Piano Masterclasses, Summit Music Festival, PianoSummer at New Paltz, Beethoven Institute at Mannes, and Round Top Festival Institute. Margarita performs in several chamber concert series as well as the annual Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival, which celebrates the music of avant-garde Ukrainian composers.
Dr. Rovenskaya especially enjoys chamber music, and has collaborated with internationally acclaimed artists, including concertmaster of Russian orchestra Moscow Virtuosi, Alexey Lundin. In summer of 2013, she performed in Vermont as part of the six-week Manchester Music Festival chamber series. In the summer of 2015, Margarita was Visiting Artist and Piano Fellow at the Heifetz. Her performances also include premieres of new music, such as the US premier of Frank Ticheli’s Clarinet Concerto, where she was the orchestral pianist, and Christopher Dietz’s premiere of Sonoromoro for chamber orchestra, piano and percussion. Dr. Rovenskaya is also a member of the Desdemona Ensemble, a chamber ensemble which commissions and performs music of living composers; composer Finola Merivale’s album, Tus, was recorded by Desdemona Ensemble and won Best Contemporary Classical Album this year. It features “Release”, a work for violin and piano, with Dr. Rovenskaya on piano.
Born in Ukraine, Margarita Rovenskaya began studying the piano at the age of six in Chicago. She earned her Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance at Oberlin Conservatory in May 2012, her Masters in Piano Studies at New York University in May 2014, and earned her Doctorate of Musical Arts at Rutgers University in 2022. Her teachers include Efrem Briskin, Peter Takacs, Eteri Andjaparidze, and Vladimir Valjarevic. Dr. Rovenskaya is currently based in New York City. She has served as Co-Adjunct Faculty at Rutgers University, Adjunct Piano Instructor at New York University, and is currently Head of the Piano Department at Newark School of the Arts as well as Piano Faculty at the Spence School.
The Afternoon Recital Series is made possible, in part, through the support of the Ocean County College Foundation.
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