Jersey International Masterclasses

Friday 26th July to Tuesday 6th August 2013.

 

In partnership with the Royal College of Music, and with the support of the One Foundation locally, and the Vladimir Spivakov International Charity Foundation and Tsukanov Family Foundation internationally, we have worked closely with Viktoria Grigoreva (professor of violin at Royal College of Music Junior Department and Eton College) to help establish a new international music course for students either studying at music college, or in the final stages of preparing for music college auditions.  The  Jersey International Masterclasses brought together an outstanding faculty of thirteen leading teachers to guide and inspire a total of forty-two students from all over the world in ten days of exceptional music-making.

The teaching faculty featured for violin – Zakhar Bron (Russia), Nina Balabina (Russia/Sweden), Mark Messenger (UK – Head of Strings at RCM), and Viktoria Grigoreva (UK – RCM and Eton College), and for piano – Dmitri Bashkirov (Russia), Leonid Margarius (Russia/Italy), Vanessa Latarche (UK – Head of Piano at RCM), Yekatarina Lebedeva (UK – RCM).  This truly outstanding faculty was supported by Olga Danilova from the Kazakhstan Arutau Specialist Music School and Irina Grebneva from the Ukraine Kharkov Specialist music School, and UK-based accompanist Stephen Meakins.

The visiting students attended from countries as diverse as Russia, China, Singapore, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Italy, France and Sweden.  During the course of the ten days a full programme of lessons, concerts, lectures and masterclasses took place.  Chateau Vermont was the main venue for all tuition, and we were grateful for the support of Grainville School to allow a wing of their facilities to be transformed into additional teaching and practice facilities.  Island Music assisted with the provision of pianos and piano tuning, and concerts took place at the Jersey Arts Centre, Georgetown Methodist Church, and here at the academy.  We were grateful for the partnership of the Stafford Hotel, Revere Hotel, and Grand Jersey to provide a central location for accommodating the visiting students.  We would also like to thank the families of the local students involved for hosting some of the students.

The connections which allowed such an event to get established go back to the March 2011 Madeira International Music Competition and Forum, during which we met Viktoria Grigoreva.  The link developed further with various visits from herself and her colleague Yekatarina Lebedeva (November 2011, May 2012, December 2012).  During these exchanges we started to discuss and plan a more substantial yearly event, and the concept of the masterclasses grew from there.

The Jersey International Masterclasses have been established as a locally-based charitable foundation, entitled Jersey Music Masterclasses Foundation, and we hope that from this solid base and after a wonderful opening year we will be able to make this course a yearly event to bring some fantastic teachers and students from all over the world for the benefit of our local young musicians and the island as a whole.