BOONE—Award-winning Russian pianist Eleonora Karpukhova will present a guest recital Wednesday, Feb. 17 at Appalachian State University. The 8 p.m. performance in Broyhill Music Center’s Rosen Concert Hall is free and open to the public. Hayes School of Music faculty member Bair Shagdaron will join Karpukhova in the performance.

A graduate of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Karpukhova is now an associate professor of music at her alma mater.

Karpukhova’s Boone performance will include “Ballade in G minor, op.23” and three waltzes by Chopin and the concert suite from Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker” ballet.

Karpukhova and Shagdaron will perform Rachmaninoff’s “Vocalise, op.34” and “Suite No. 2 for Two Pianos, op. 17.”

While a student, she won numerous international competitions including the Citta di Senigallia International Competition in 1996 and the 18th Varallo Sessia International Competition in Italy and the 29th Dr. Luis Sigall International Piano Competition in Chile in 2002. In 2004, she won the Jose Vianna da Motta Piano Competition in Lisbon, Portugal.

Karpukhova has performed in Russia, Ukraine, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Chile and Portugal. In 2013, Karpukhova initiated and organized the Rachmaninoff Fest music festival to mark the 140th anniversary of the composer’s birth. The festival hosted five concerts featuring Rachmaninoff’s music performed at different chamber music halls including the Rachmaninoff Hall.

Karpukhova has recorded two CDs of Rachmaninoff’s music, for both solo and two pianos. The most recent CD featuring Rachmaninoff’s Etudes-Tableaux was issued in 2014 by Classical Records.

Shagdaron also is a graduate of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory. An accomplished soloist, he took fourth prize at the 1980 International J.S. Bach Competition in Leipzig, Germany, and third prize at the 1992 International Competition for Piano and Orchestra in Mazara del Vallo, Italy. Also in 1992 he was awarded the Honorary Title of “The People’s Artist of Buryat Republic” (Russia).

Shagdaron has given master classes in Japan and also performed throughout the United States, Russia, Japan, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Belgium and Mongolia.

He joined the faculty at Appalachian in the fall of 2000 as an assistant professor of piano.

About Appalachian State University

As a premier public institution, Appalachian State University prepares students to lead purposeful lives. App State is one of 17 campuses in the University of North Carolina System, with a national reputation for innovative teaching and opening access to a high-quality, cost-effective education. The university enrolls more than 21,000 students, has a low student-to-faculty ratio and offers more than 150 undergraduate and 80 graduate majors at its Boone and Hickory campuses and through App State Online. Learn more at https://www.appstate.edu.

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