International Festival of Organ Music held in Grodno
The recent event in Grodno saw well-known masters from Belarus and abroad performing on the unique Magnus Silesia Royal organ, installed at Grodno’s State College of Arts. Solo recitals were given by: People’s Artist of Belarus Igor Olovnikov — a Professor of the Belarusian State Academy of Music; Belarusian State Philharmonic soloist Konstantin Sharov — a connoisseur of old Belarusian organs; and the organist from the St. Sophia Cathedral in Polotsk, Ksenia Pogorelaya. Among foreign participants was organist and conductor Martin Meyer — a cantor and the organist of a Lutheran Church in Thuringia; Polish organist, conductor and composer Gedymin Grubba; Professor of organ music Felician Rosca — from the West University in Romanian Timisoara; and famous organ music composer Yekaterina Melnikova, from Russia.
The Magnus Silesia Royal organ was installed in the concert hall at Grodno’s College of Arts in May of this year, having been made by Polish enterprise Magnus Organy Aleksandra Brodzikowska. This organ boasts the latest in musical electronics, using new sound engineering and computer technologies to allow the reproduction of the authentic timbre of real pipe organs from across Europe (recorded in the memory of the instrument). The Magnus Silesio Moderno ROYAL is a full virtual model of organs found in cathedrals in Italian Brescia, in Czech Prague, in Zwolle in Germany, and in France, the UK and the Netherlands.
