GATHERED TOGETHER TO PROMOTE SCRIABIN’S ART
On Thursday, November 14, 2019, the Founding Assembly of the Croatian Society “Alexander Scriabin” was held at the Academy of Music, University of Zagreb. Our mission is to research and promote the legacy of this great Russian modern composer and pianist, the creator of one of the most interesting ideas in the world music culture of the 20th century. On this occasion, the Management Board of the Society was elected—the President is Prof. Ruben Dalibaltayan, Vice-President Prof. Veljko Glodić PhD, Executive Director Mr. Krešimir Starčević and Secretary Prof. Julia Gubajdullina (all pianists). At the same time, the professionals who made an exceptional contribution to the founding of the Society and the popularization of Scriabin’s art were admitted to the Honorary Membership. We were extremely honored by Mr. Alexander Serafimovich Scriabin, PhD, from Moscow, accepting the status of the Honorary President (Alexander Serafimovich is Scriabin’s descendant dedicated to researching the work of his great ancestor), while the Honorary Membership was accepted by Mr. Božo Kovačević (former Ambassador of the Republic of Croatia to Moscow) and Mrs. Mirna Rudan Lisak, PhD (author of the first book in Croatia dedicated to Scriabin). However, the story of how these admirers of Scriabin’s work gathered together to promote his art shows that the dynamics of the “counterpoint of life” often does not lag behind the musical dynamics at all, because many of these individuals until recently had not even known each other.
How we did it
Enjoy the atmosphere of our Founding Assembly while watching the speech held by our Honorary Member Mrs. Mirna Rudan Lisak, PhD, announced by Prof. Dalibaltayan—President, and Prof. Veljko Glodić, PhD—Vice President: 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. The following link offers 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 accepted to be appointed Ambassador of the Republic of Croatia to the Russian Federation, it was hard to imagine that this new step in his rich political career would lead him to acquaintance, cultural cooperation and, finally, friendship with Mr. Alexander Serafimovich Scriabin, a descendant of the famous Russian composer, whose Memorial Museum is located in Moscow. As Alexander Serafimovich was also the President of the Scriabin Fund, in order to build cultural bridges between Moscow and Zagreb, Mr. Kovačević and Alexander Serafimovich jointly decided to organize a visit of the Zagreb pianist Veljko Glodić, knowing that he had a number of Scriabin’s works on his repertoire. Thus Prof. Glodić performed in Moscow and Dzerzhinsk, and having written an interesting 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 used to play under the piano of her mother, pianist Tatjana Valić Rudan. Receiving a PhD was to enable 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, in turn, a friend of Mrs. Elizabeta Lalevska, the wife of Mr. Božo Kovačević.
SCRIABIN’S DESCENDANT VISITING ZAGREB
Having received a book on Scriabin, Mrs. Pavlinić-Tomaševović and Mrs. Lalevska enthusiastically organized a meeting of the author and Scriabin’s descendant during his stay in Zagreb. Alexander Serafimovich was so surprised that he immediately recommended Mrs. Rudan Lisak to the Scriabin Museum to see if there was a possibility of organizing her lecture on the mystic chord. After analyzing her work, the Scriabin Museum indeed sent her an invitation to give a lecture 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 of the two countries, with the emphasis 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 contact Professors Dalibaltayan and Glodić in order to found the Croatian Society “Aleksandar Skrjabin” with them. This was planned on the eve of the celebration of the 150th anniversary of Scriabin’s birth, and a friend and partner of the Society would be, of course, 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 have already achieved top results at numerous world piano competitions and become prominent piano players. Nevertheless, although Professors Dalibaltayan and Glodić gladly 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, and he was to help everyone and actively participate in the implementation of the program taking over the coordination of social networks, Prof. Dalibaltayan found this member in his colleague and former student, pianist Krešimir Starčević.
LETTERS OF SUPPORT AND STORIES FROM MOSCOW LEFT NO ONE INDIFFERENT
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 Mr. Alexander Serafimovich Scriabin and the Memorial Museum of A. N. Scriabin from Moscow. The stories told by all speakers were fascinating, thus 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, which, as Mr. Kovačević concluded, indeed could only be experienced in Moscow. Many wonderful experiences from Moscow were also shared by Prof. Glodić, while Prof. Dalibaltayan presented the Society and thanked everyone who contributed to its establishment. Mr. Starčević outlined the goals that the Society would strive to achieve, and the last presenter was Mrs. Rudan Lisak, who expressed hope that the Croatian Society “Aleksandar Scriabin” would provide artists and researchers with an interdisciplinary platform on which, in Scriabin’s spirit, many pianists would be able to 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 to become a member of our Editorial Board. From the pianists, we were congratulated by Prof. Hari Gusek, known for his refined interpretations of Scriabin’s Opus, and the young pianist Jan Niković. In addition, we were pleased to find out that the news of the Founding Assembly was featured at the top of the Scriabin Museum Official Facebook Page for a whole week, to inform of our existence 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 Ljetopis.
INVITATION TO EVERYONE INTERESTED IN
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 in order to gain new insights into the art of this, unfortunately, to a wider audience still insufficiently known Russian composer. Nevertheless, his work is of unquestionable importance for 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.” And since Scriabin also aspired to synthesize all arts, we are sure that besides music lovers, fans of other branches of arts will equally enjoy our program. We invite everyone to follow our work, which would be completely meaningless without the audience!
Join us!
Our Society promotes the art of the great Russian composer and pianist Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin.
All Scriabin’s admirers can contribute to popularization of his art and the work of our Society—just fill the application form and send it to our email!
