Pianist Teodor Doré and his ensemble presented a chamber concert at the Chelsea loft of fellow pianist (and friend), Jonathan DePeri on January 24th in New York City.
The concert was inspired by themes of exile, displacement, and longing for homeland. The Crimean-born Doré is now an exile, as are his accompanists: soprano Anastasiya Roytman (from Ukraine), violinist Taisiya Losmakova (from Belarus), and Grammy-nominated cellist Sergey Antonov (from Russia).
A standing-room-only audience of 80+ guests filled the double height music room and balcony, Doré performed Sergei Rachmaninoff, as well as his own compositions; a highlight of the evening, his new orchestration of Suite in D Minor, made with the approval and encouragement of Rachmaninoff’s great-granddaughter, Alexandra Conus Rachmaninoff.
“It is a big responsibility to touch this heritage.”
said Doré, “But music unites us.”
Doré’s artistic journey mirrors Sergei Rachmaninoff’s own story of exile, both artists uprooted from their homelands by political turmoil.
The program served as a preview of his sold-out Carnegie Hall debut on January 29.
Guests included Yanna Avis, Edgar Batista, Nora Coblence, Katherine Crockett, Mark Domino, Cornelius Escaravage and Ryan Nash, Antonia Fransceschi, James Frey and Fiona Eltz, Jacqueline Garrett, Liecie Hollis, Ann Dexter-Jones, Juan Montoya, Catherine Orentreich, Alexandra Penney, Jean Park, Jerome Rose, Marie-Monique Steckel, The Met Museum’s Bradley Strauchen-Scherer, Barbara Tober, as well as the pianist’s wife Viktoriya Pakhomova.
Doré’s forthcoming album, his seventh, Rachmaninoff Variations, offers a selection of Rachmaninoff and readings of letters from exiles and from Rachmaninoff’s personal diary, drawing a poignant connection between the music and personal struggles. “Having lost my homeland, I lost myself” said Sergei Rachmaninoff, “ The exile, who has lost his musical roots, traditions and native soil, has no desire to create, no other consolation remains, except for the unbreakable silence of undisturbed memories.”
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