International Menuhin Music Academy brings the magic of melody to Dubai
DUBAI: The International Menuhin Music Academy is hosting Between Two Worlds, Between Two Centuries, a string quartet concert, on May 18 at The Theatre, Mall of Emirates, Dubai. The musical magic aims to take audiences on an auditory journey across musical periods, with an array of musical pieces from soloists of the Academy, comprising harmonies ranging from the classical to the contemporary, from the wizardry of Vivaldi to more. Violinist Oleg Kaskiv, the Academy’s Musical Director, will perform with three Virtuosos: Yosuke Kaneko, cellist; Asako Ilmori, violinist and Jana Stojanovic, violinist. The first pieces played are Mendelssohn and Schubert, composed in the first half of the 19th century, symbols of the romantic European age. Then, for the New World, comes Dvořák, while he was in New York, and its cheerful string American Quartet. The same maestro composed Symphony of the New World around 1893, his 9th Symphony. The end of the concert offers two Piazzola famous pieces (1974) transporting connoisseurs to Latin America. Antonio Lucio Vivaldi was an Italian Baroque composer, virtuoso violinist, teacher and impresario. He is regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers, and his influence during his lifetime was widespread across Europe.
Felix Mendelssohn was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor and his compositions include symphonies, concertos, piano, organ and chamber music. Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer, who, despite a short lifetime, let behind a vast oeuvre, including seven complete symphonies, operas and a large body of piano and chamber music. Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer, one of the first to achieve worldwide recognition. His style has been described as “the fullest recreation of a national idiom with that of the symphonic tradition, absorbing folk influences and finding effective ways of using them.”
The originality of the International Menuhin Music Academy is to train virtuosos of the violin, viola and cello, who at the same time, learn to play together in renowned halls in Switzerland and abroad. In training the chamber orchestra, they constitute a renowned Camerata: The
Soloists of the Menuhin Academy. The Academy’s aim is to allow the virtuosi to appear in the biggest international competitions and later obtain coveted positions in established orchestras or to pursue a careers as soloists. Due to its international nature, the Academy recruits students from all over the world. Its philosophy is exemplified by University of Geneva Professor Charles Mela’s words: “Music brings us back to the source of our emotions, despite all our differences.
“To lead exceptional young talents from all over the world to fulfill themselves through music and to exemplify the humanist heritage of the founder of the Academy, Lord Menuhin.” By creating the International Menuhin Music Academy in Gstaad in 1977, Lord Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999) wanted to bring together young musicians from different cultures, offering them professional-level musical education and the possibility of performing together regularly on stage. He is still remembered as a world famous violin child prodigy, conductor and humanist. “Music creates order out of chaos: for rhythm imposes unanimity upon the divergent, melody imposes continuity upon the disjointed, and harmony imposes compatibility upon the incongruous,” he has said.
A thinker who believed in peace and harmony, he had an influence far beyond the world of classical music. He was convinced that the humanist ideal of Europe found its best expression in the works of the great composers of classical music, and he put all his efforts into creating an unbroken link between creators, masters and performers. This resulted in the creation of, in 1977, the International Menuhin Music Academy in Switzerland, which was his last place of residence. Since 2015, the prestigious Institut Le Rosey has hosted the International Menuhin Music Academy on its campus in Rolle,
Switzerland, as the resident orchestra of the Rosey Concert Hall, where the best orchestras and musical ensembles from around the world perform for the students and public.
The Academy also performs in Saanen and Gstaad, the winter campus of Le Rosey. Institut Le Rosey, commonly referred to as Le Rosey or simply Rosey, is a boarding school in Rolle. It was founded by Paul-émile Carnal in 1880 on the site of the 14th-century Château du Rosey in the town of Rolle and is one of the oldest boarding schools in Switzerland. It is also one of the most expensive schools in the world. Le Rosey owns a campus in the ski resort village of Gstaad, to where the student body, faculty, and staff move during the months of January through March. Le Rosey’s main campus, near Rolle, is situated on 28 hectares of land adjacent to Lake Geneva. It is divided into two campuses, one for boys situated on the main campus, and one for girls called La Combe.
The school’s winter campus, at the ski resort of Gstaad, is composed of several traditional chalets within the town. In 2004, Institut Le Rosey’s Charity Commitee undertook a humanitarian programme to construct and maintain a private school, the Rosey-abantara School, in the suburbs of Bamako, the capital of Mali, in Saharan Africa. Rosey-abantara is considered the most important charity project in Le Rosey’s history. It opened its doors in 2010 and through the support of Le Rosey, over 1,400 young Malians are educated here. Le Rosey students and teachers also undertake humanitarian missions throughout the year to the Rosey-abantara project, to teach Malian students.