Alexandra Dovgan can be called a rising star only because she is yet very young (Alexandra is 11 years old). As for her performance skills, no concessions to her age are required. She is a fine, high-class virtuoso musician. “If you cannot see who is on stage, one cannot tell from the way Sasha plays that she is just a child,” said Yuri Bogdanov, pianist and Professor of the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music. Sasha has lived in the world of music since she was a baby. Both her parents are graduates of the Gnessin Academy. Since the age of seven, Alexandra has won numerous international music competitions. Alexandra Dovgan currently studies at the Central Music School of the Moscow Conservatory. She studies under the famed teacher Mira Marchenko; her pianist “bloodline” goes three generations back to the most famous names of the 20th century, such as Heinrich Neuhaus, Lev Oborin, and Emil Gilels. The year 2017 alone saw the pianist win three major competitions, including the International Television Contest for Young Musicians The Nutcracker, the Vladimir Krainev Moscow International Piano Competition, and the International Astana Piano Passion Competition. Alexandra won the grand prix of the 2018 International Grand Piano Competition under the patronage of Denis Matsuev. Sasha was the youngest contestant and won the main prize (an acoustic Yamaha grand piano).
The spectators will be able to appreciate freshness and richness of the young pianist’s piano palette as her programme spans across four centuries. To be performed are Couperin’s and Rameau’s picturesque miniatures, a transcription of Bach’s chorale, Chopin’s waltzes (which Sasha loves), and Debussy’s Children’s Corner, so full of exquisite and kind humour. The audience will also have an opportunity to enjoy such rarely-performed pieces as Lyrica nova (1941), a Rachmaninoff-like four-part suite by the unjustly forgotten composer Sergei Bortkiewicz (1877–1952), and one of 12 Études in Minor Keys by Marc-André Hamelin, a renowned modern Canadian pianist and composer.
