Peta Stewart
Silence would have been golden, very welcome in the home of violinist Marina Grauman when she was growing up in Russia, she says! Marina, who was raised in a musical household, will play the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra’s third concert, on September 7, in the Spring Symphony season. Also on the programme are Symphony 11 – The Elements in a premiere of Hendrik Hofmeyr’s work, and the Second Symphony by Borodin. Conrad van Alphen makes a welcome return to the CPO podium in the first of the last two concerts in the current season.
An incredible cultural load
Marina’s father is a violinist and teacher, while her mother is a pianist, as is her sister. “There was always music in our home in St Petersburg and sometimes it would have been great to have had silence! It was an incredible cultural load which I carried all the time and I wonder how it didn’t steamroll me altogether,” she says. “Sometimes I was coerced into practicing but I’m very thankful for that now.”
Why the violin? “It really was a toss-up. My parents couldn’t decide, peacefully, which instrument I should learn – violin or piano – and so they just threw a coin. Violin won. For the world balance, my younger sister is a pianist.”
Rimsky-Korsakov Special School for Gifted Children
Marina was born in St Petersburg and graduated from Rimsky-Korsakov Special School for Gifted Children in 2012 with honours. The turning point for her was the decision to study in Germany. She is now studying at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin. “This is a very small and elite university, with huge competition at the entry exams. I’m a great fan of my teacher Ulf Wallin, and also of my co-students – their level is incredibly high, and all of them are faithful classical music adepts. I am so privileged to live here – every night we have to choose between top level orchestras and soloists! This keeps one’s ears very sharply tuned and, believe me, there is no lack of inspiration!”
“The Sibelius concerto is very special to her. “I played this concerto for the first time when I was 14, and had been coached by at least six different teachers. I grew up with Sibelius, have played it a lot and rather differently each time and now, finally, I am freewheeling with it. This has been a long journey. Since it is the most “student” and “competition” concerto there is, there are a lot of traditions you have to learn, respect and finally forget in order to create your own vision of it. I’m happy to perform it again!”
We will hear it played on a violin made by Thomas Allierie last year. “It sounds great. I am practically the only one person who has ever played this instrument. So it’s really MY violin.”
Marina has been winning competitions since 2004, when she was 10. She has won Second Prize in the 2008 Mravinsky International in St Petersburg, First Prize the following year in the Concours Internationale Jeunes Violonistes ‘Bravo!’ in Namur, Belgium; and Third Prize in the Internationaler Bodensee Musikwettbewerb in Überlingen, Germany. In 2014 she was awarded with the Weinberg Prize for the best interpretation of a 20th/21st century work at the TONALi-Grand Prix. She is also the holder of the DAAD-Prize 2015 for outstanding international students at German universities, and the holder of several scholarships.
Munich Chamber Orchestra
She plays in festivals in Europe and the US, has performed across Russia, Europe and American as a soloist with orchestras such as the Munich Chamber Orchestra, St Petersburg State Symphony and State Hermitage Orchestra. She made her debut in the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg in 2015, and in the Berliner Philharmonie with the Berliner Camerata in 2016.
Marina is happy with her life at the moment. “I have a good balance of concerts between solo performance and chamber music, enough time to prepare all of them well, something I rate as one of the most important aspects of music making to me.” With hard work which she believes in added to her talent, she will soon find that she is running out of time!
She loves chamber music, and her piano trio, Marvin, has been selected for the semi-finals in the Premio Trio di Trieste competition in Italy. The trio also won First Prize at the Mendelssohn-Bartholdy competiton in Berlin last January.
“I have been torn between practicing solo and rehearsing with my Trio. Rehearsals with a trio, of course, are not that easy to schedule and I have had to stay very focused.” She will be leaving Cape Town for Trieste and we wish her the very best of luck!
Who: Marina Grauman, violin
What: Cape Town Philharmonic’s Spring Symphony Season
Where: The City Hall, Cape Town
When: 7 September, 2017 at 8pm
Info, book: http://bit.ly/SibeliusSymphonicConcerto
Web: www.cpo.org.za
WS
