Concert No.2 from the series “Classics and Jazz” – a performance by vibraphonist Andriy Pushkarev

Concert No.2 from the series “Classics and Jazz” was marked by a performance by the famous Ukrainian vibraphonist Andrey Pushkarev on 23rd April at the Culture and Education Centre “Master Klass”.

The only grammy holder in Ukraine presented a solo programme “Bach Vibrations” with improvisations on themes by Johann Sebastian Bach in the first part of the concert. In each of 15 compositions by the great German composer, Pushkarev managed to regenerate a style of legendary jazz pianists including Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Scott Joplin, Dave Brubeck and Eroll Garner. The project was suggested by the outstanding violinist Gidon Kremer, whose orchestra “Kremerata Baltica” has been performing regularly with Pushkarev for more than 10 years. The programme “Bach Vibrations” was first performed at the festival “Les Museiques” in Basle, Switzerland in 2004 and was released on CD in 2007.

Many guests were seeing a vibraphone for the first time and Andriy played it masterfully. Already famous pieces of music took on new colours when he was playing them. And the musician’s movements on the stage reminded us of a fascinating mystical dance.

In the second part of the concert Pushkarev performed in a jazz trio together with the famous Ukrainian musicians Maksim Gladetskiy on contrabass and Oleksandr Murenko on drums. Jazz versions of classical pieces of music by P. I. Tchaikovsky and A. Khachaturyan were played at the concert, too. This trio really sparked the audience and touched everyone’s heart with their expressive performance.

The concert was, as usual, led by Oleksiy Kogan. His corporate style of entertaining created a special atmosphere of unity between jazz and classics, moderation and freedom, and that is why the spectators simultaneously and attentively followed each sound and encouraged the artists during the most auspicious moments.