GATHERED TOGETHER TO PROMOTE SCRIABIN’S ART
On Thursday, November 14, 2019, the Founding Assembly of the Croatian Society “Aleksander Scriabin” took place at the Music Academy of the University of Zagreb. Our mission is to research and promote the legacy of Scriabin, the renowned Russian modernist composer and pianist, as well as the creator of one of the most captivating ideas in 20th-century world music culture. During the event, the Society’s presidency was elected, with Prof. Ruben Dalibaltayan as the president, Prof. Veljko Glodić, PhD as the Vice President, Mr. Krešimir Starčević as the Executive Director, and Prof. Julia Gubajdullina as the Secretary, all of whom are accomplished pianists. We also had the privilege of bestowing Honorary Membership upon individuals who made exceptional contributions to the establishment of the Society and the promotion of Scriabin’s art. It was an honor to have Alexsander Serafimovich Scriabin from Moscow accept the esteemed position of our Honorary President, given his dedication to researching the works of his great ancestor. Furthermore, Mr. Božo Kovačević, former ambassador of the Republic of Croatia in Moscow, and Mirna Rudan Lisak, PhD, author of the first book in Croatia dedicated to Scriabin and a longstanding proponent of his art, graciously accepted Honorary Membership.
How we did it
Enjoy the speech given by our Honorary Member Mrs. Mirna Rudan Lisak, PhD, announced by Prof. Dalibaltayan, and Prof. Veljko Glodić, PhD: you will find out how we established cultural relations between Zagreb and Moscow
Letter from Scriabin’s descendant
Mr. Božo Kovačević, former Croatian Ambassador to Moscow, reads a letter from his friend Alexander Serafimovich Scriabin, PhD—Scriabin’s descendant dedicated to promoting the art of his famous ancestor and the Honorary President of our Society
PARTNER: SCRIABIN MUSEUM
We thank the Memorial Museum of A. N. Scriabin from Moscow for their friendship, support and archival photographs of Scriabin. At the following link is a letter of support, which was read during the Founding Assembly of our newly founded Society. We are happy for the past cooperation and we look forward to our future projects!
OUR DIFFERENCES ARE OUR STRENGTHS
When Mr. Božo Kovačević, former Member of the Parliament and Minister in the Government of the Republic of Croatia, in 2003 became the Ambassador of the Republic of Croatia to the Russian Federation, it was hard to imagine that this new step in his political career would lead to the acquaintance, cultural cooperation, and friendship with Mr. Alexander Serafimovich Scriabin, PhD, a descendant of the famous Russian composer, whose Memorial Museum is located in Moscow. As Alexander Serafimovich was the President of the Scriabin Fund, in order to build cultural bridges between Moscow and Zagreb, Mr. Kovačević and Alexander Serafimovich decided to invite the Zagreb pianist Veljko Glodić, who had a number of Scriabin’s works in his repertoire. Prof. Glodić thus performed in Moscow and Dzerzhinsk, and having written a paper entitled Alexander Scriabin and Contemporaries from Central Europe—Béla Bartók and Dora Pejačević, from 2015 to 2016 his work was published in several Russian journals. None of these admirers of Scriabin’s art knew that, simultaneously, at the Academy of Fine Arts, University of Zagreb, Mrs. Mirna Rudan Lisak, Bachelor of Engineering in Architecture, in 2010 enrolled in Doctoral studies with Scriabin’s mystic chord as her Thesis Topic. In 2013, she defended her Thesis with honours, and in 2015 her book Abstract Reproductive as Productive Art: Chromatic fantasies of the composer Alexander Scriabin, painter Alexej Jawlensky and pianist Ivo Pogorelich was published. She devoted herself to researching Scriabin’s art because he had been her favorite composer ever since her earliest childhood, when she played on the piano of her mother, pianist Tatjana Valić Rudan. Receiving a PhD enabled her to return to her first passion—music, so when she finally became an Advisor at the City of Zagreb Office for Culture, she met and became friends with Mrs. Ksenija Pavlinić-Tomašegović from the Museum of Naive Art, who is a friend of Mrs. Elizabeta Lalevska, the wife of Mr. Božo Kovačević.
SCRIABIN’S DESCENDANT IN ZAGREB
Having received a book on Scriabin, Mrs. Pavlinić-Tomašegović and Mrs. Lalevska enthusiastically organized a meeting of the author and the Scriabin’s descendant during his stay in Zagreb. Alexander Serafimovich was so surprised that he immediately recommended Mrs. Rudan Lisak to the Scriabin Museum. After analyzing her work, the Scriabin Museum sent her an invitation to give a lecture on the mystic chord during a conference in Moscow, organized in October 2018, to mark the Museum’s 100th anniversary. It was a great joy and honor, and it was this visit that further contributed to the networking of experts, artists and professionals from the two countries. The emphasis remained on the value of long-term cultural cooperation, which was permanently implemented during the conference. Thus, already in May 2019, again in Zagreb, Alexander Serafimovich proposed to Mrs. Rudan Lisak to found the Croatian Society Alexander Scriabin, and to contact Prof. Dalibaltayan and Prof. Glodić to help her with doing so. This was planned on the eve of the celebration of the 150th anniversary of Scriabin’s birth, so a friend and partner of the Society would be the Scriabin Museum in Moscow. It was very important that Prof. Dalibaltayan became the President of the Society because he was a Moscow student of the great Valery Kastelsky, one of the bearers of Russian pianism (the school of G. G. Neuhaus), also one of the greatest interpreters of Scriabin’s piano opus. With his vast knowledge, Prof. Dalibaltayan had already enriched the Zagreb Music Academy, so his students had already achieved top results at numerous world piano competitions. Nevertheless, although Prof. Dalibaltayan and Prof. Glodić accepted to found the Society, working in the City Administration Mrs. Rudan Lisak could not be a co-founder. As the third member was still missing, Prof. Dalibaltayan invited his colleague and former student, pianist Krešimir Starčević, to help in the implementation of the program and take over the coordination of social networks. For this purpose, and for the benefit of the Society, Dr. Rudan Lisak left the position of Executive Director.
LETTERS OF SUPPORT AND STORIES FROM MOSCOW
The atmosphere at the Assembly was bursting with positive energy, so we take this opportunity to thank everyone for coming, especially the representatives of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Zagreb, and the Russian national minority in Croatia. The audience, full of musicians of all generations, could enjoy the contents of letters of support written by Dr. Alexander Serafimovich Scriabin, and the Memorial Museum of A. N. Scriabin from Moscow. The stories told by all the speakers were fascinating, so Mr. Kovačević made us aware of how and where he met Alexander Serafimovich: it was in 2007, in the Glinka Museum, when Alexander Serafimovich celebrated his 60th birthday. This celebration gathered three descendants of famous artists—Alexander Serafimovich as Scriabin’s descendant, and descendants of Sergei Rachmaninoff and Boris Pasternak. Many experiences from Moscow were also shared by Prof. Glodić, while Prof. Dalibaltayan presented the Society and thanked those who contributed to its establishment. Mr. Starčević read the mutual goals, and the last presenter was Dr. Mirna Rudan Lisak, who expressed hope that the Croatian Society Alexander Scriabin would provide artists and researchers with an interdisciplinary platform on which, in Scriabin’s spirit, many pianists would “colour” the black and white piano keys. Finally, it is worth noting that Mo. Davorin Kempf, Croatian composer, conductor and pedagogue, congratulated us on the founding of the Society, as well as Mrs. Bosiljka Perić Kempf, our distinguished musicologist, music critic and publicist, who accepted membership of our Editorial Board. The pianists who congratulated us were Prof. Hari Gusek, known for his refined interpretations of Scriabin’s Opus, and the young pianist Jan Niković. In addition, the news of the Founding Assembly was featured at the top of the Scriabin Museum Official Facebook Page for a whole week, to inform as many Museum visitors and followers as possible. The article on the Founding Assembly was published in the Gazette of the Russian National Minority in the Republic of Croatia.
LEARN ABOUT SCRIABIN’S INTERDISCIPLINARY ART
The Founding Assembly is the cornerstone for a wide spectrum of our future activities, which will range from concerts and lectures to various cultural events and guest appearances. We invite all Scriabinists to join our Society and gain new insights into his art because, unfortunately, to a wider audience, Scriabin still remains an unknown Russian composer. Nevertheless, his work is of unquestionable importance in the history of art because it occupies the very top of the bridge between classical and modern art, thus uniting the best from both of these “worlds.” In doing so, Scriabin aspired to synthesize art, so we are sure that not only music lovers, but also fans of other branches of art, can equally enjoy our program. We invite you to follow our work—we need you as our partners and as our audience!