by B. Roach
A Russian-born pianist whose name is Evgeny Kuznetsov, on January 25, 2019, enthralled children from the primary schools in a piano play exhibition, almost like a recital.
The children were all students of Brian Hosefros who is the most recent music fellow on island through the Montserrat Music Foundation, which was founded by Sir George Martin, to teach and involve children in music on Montserrat.
Kustnetsov is a graduate from Moscow State University of Culture and Arts. While studying, he won prizes and participated in competitions and festivals such as Russian Youth Scriabin Piano Competition, Moscow Chopin Piano Festival, Tatiana Nikolayeva International Piano Competition, Moscow Liszt Piano Festival. He currently lives in London and plays on venues such as Steinway Hall, 1901 Arts Club and Burgh House.
His exhibition for the children was done at his friend Brian’s invitation who says he is desirous of introducing the children to as many varieties of music; and it is hoped to bring out in the children the wealth of talent he has observed that they have. He is allowing them to create and perform music they have written.
This he will showcase on Saturday, March 9, in a presentation “A Montserratian Fairy Tale by the Montserrat National Youth Choir” at the Cultural Centre. Brian has been working with the students from the various schools to create a production featuring music and a dramatic presentation written and performed by children.
The show is expected to begin promptly at 7.00 P.M. and all are invited to be in their seats on time for the start.
The pianist Kusnetsov shared an article recently published “in our corporate blog,” to be found here at: https://badoo.com/team/press/117/. It appeared under caption – Badooer makes music in Montserrat. The article boasted: “When Evgeny, one of our QA engineers, had the opportunity to go and perform for the Montserrat Foundation to help support the island’s population, of course we jumped at the chance to support him.”
https://badoo.com/team/press/117/ Badooer makes music in Montserrat
Here at Badoo HQ, we like to think we’re always making people’s days a little brighter – bringing new couples together, making dates between strangers possible, coming up with a never-ending stream of romantic puns… But sometimes, we get to take it a little further and actually do some real good.
When Evgeny, one of our QA engineers, had the opportunity to go and perform for the Montserrat Foundation to help support the island’s population, of course we jumped at the chance to support him.
If you haven’t heard of Montserrat before, or why it’s in need of support, it’s a small island in the West Indies that suffered a terrible volcanic eruption about 20 years ago. The capital city, along with pretty much the whole of the southern half of the island, was buried under about 12m of mud and debris, and several more eruptions, gas clouds and rock flows have further damaged the area since. The whole population had to be evacuated to the northern half of the island, and a new airport, capital city and housing for everyone affected had to be constructed.
More than half the population of Montserrat chose to leave – and have been granted full British citizenship so they can settle here and start fresh – but for the people who decided to stay, the island is still their home. And that’s where the Montserrat Foundation comes in, along with our very own Evgeny.
Evgeny’s been playing the piano since he was seven years old, when the rest of us were still making daisy chains and shooting lasers from our fingers, and his trip to the island was part of the Foundation’s education programme. While he was there, he performed a kind of “lecture-concert” for the children, as he calls it, that included a combo of classical music, contemporary songs and quizzes to make the whole thing more interactive. He also joined in with music lessons and even performed a song by the island’s most popular artist, Arrow.
‘Meeting the people there was the best part of the trip. I met many incredibly talented, fascinating people who work hard to make life on tiny Montserrat better, people who care about education and arts. And the children, with their endless energy, were just amazing!
‘The community on the island is quite small, fewer than 5000 people, so naturally all of the children are very curious about new people – meaning I got a lot of attention! Most of them had never heard live classical music before, and I was very surprised when all of them listened to it very carefully. Then during the pop/rock part, some of them started to sing – and they sang really well, believe me!’
This isn’t the first time Evgeny’s had the chance to take part in charity events. He recently took part in a 12 hour “piano marathon” in Kings Cross, where pianists played “The Infinite Piano Series” for 12 hours straight to support Amnesty International. However, it is the first time Badoo’s had the chance to support him, and we loved that we got to be a part of his latest adventure.
‘I feel really proud of Badoo. Support for initiatives like this one makes our company not just a place to work, but a place where you feel like people believe in you and your ideas.
‘Life on such a small island is tough for most of the children, but music is powerful and I hope that more of them will expose themselves to the arts. Many them did come to me after the concert with a lot of questions, which makes me think we did the right thing!
‘Overall, it was an incredible experience, and I hope Badoo continues to support other people doing things like this, whatever their activities might be.’
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