March 27, 2010

Dimitri Illarionov's performance yesterday on the stage of the Tschaikovsky Hall in Moscow was his last participation at the international Festival "Guitar Virtuosos". At the concert he premiered for the russian audience the Eduardo Angulo's Concierto No. 2 for guitar and orchestra. His partner was the State Symphony Orchestra "Novaya Rossiya" (artistic director - Yury Bashmet) conducted by Alexander Sladkovsky. Dimitri was one of the founders and organizers of the "Guitar Virtuosos" Festival, which takes place in Moscow since 2006. "I am very grateful the the Moscow Philharmonics for the organisation of this wonderful festival, which was actually the first yearly classical guitar festival in Moscow ever," Dimitri said. "Leaving the festival and I would like to thank the "Guitar Virtuosos" for their support all these years. I wish the Festival all the best and I am sure it will keep on being one the main events in the cultural life of the russian capital."

February 9, 2010

Coffee time at the "Philharmonia". In his interview to the carelian newspaper "Philharmonia" Dimitri is telling about the mystical connection of Carelia and his new guitar, whose sound has impressed the audiences firstly half a year ago. Read on the website of "Philharmonia"*: "The feelings of my listener are always important for me".

*This article is available by the moment in Russian only.

January 28, 2010

Dimitri, are you lost for us now? This was the question Nikita Koshkin asked Dimitri recently. In the year 2009 Dimitri Illarionov has played a number of concerts with russian violinist and composer Alexey Aigi. The music they performed has become a next diversion from the "classic line" and it is much more radical than his participation in the Guitar Quartet 4-tissimo. Read more what Dimitri says about classic and non-classic, about improvisation and modern art in the interview with Maria Maximkina taken for guitarmag.net [...]*

*This article is available by the moment in Russian only.

December 21, 2009

Christmas is coming and the New Year is following. It is not only Santa Claus who is taking care about the presents and fun. The russian broadcasting channel Kultura has invited Dimitri Illarionov to take part in the recordings for the show which is going to be broadcasted in the New Year Eve for almost 100 million of russian TV-viewer. Dimitri plays in the show together with Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Fedoseyev and carries on the cooperation which was starten in September 2006 at the Festival of the Orpheum Foundation for the Advancement of Young Soloists in the Tonhalle of Zürich. By the way, Dimitri was the first guitar playing participant in the whole history of the festival.

Another co-artist of the Kultura New Year Eve recording was Alexandra Pakhmutova, famous russian song writer, who is celebrating her 80th burthday in the year 2009. So Dimitri´s present for the TV-viewer is recoreded and ready. But the presents for his audience at the live concerts are coming soon too!

December 14, 2009

Classical Duo Dimitri Illarionov and Boris Andrianov is celebrating the New Year Eve with people they would like to spend their time with the whole 2010: for sure with their audience! The concert of 31.12.2009 starts at 7 p.m. in the Hall "Manezh" in the theatre "The Drama Art School" (Shkola dramaticheskogo iskusstva) in Moscow (Address: Sretenka ul. 19/27).

This concert is closing the year 2009 after the participation of Duo Illarionov-Andrianov on the 28.12.2009 at the Internationaal Kamermuziek Festival Utrecht(Holland), which is being organized by Janine Jansen.

And what are your plans for the New Year Eve?

December 4, 2009

Dear Friends! You are welcome to watch live the Gran Final of the Barrios WorldWideWeb Competition in Paraguay which will be online-broadcasted this Sunday 06.12.2009 at 19:00 GMT-4 (Ney York 17:00 - Berlin 23:00 - Moscow 07.12., 01:00 - Vladivostok 07.12., 08:00). The participants of the concert are Dimitri Illarionov, David Coto (Costa Rica), Diogo Olivera (Brazil) and Glauber Rocha (Brazil).

Links:

Broadcasting: Barrios WWW Competition Grand Final

Paraguay press about the competition: ULTIMAHORA.com 03.12.2009 - La final

Paraguay press about the participants: ULTIMAHORA.com 03.12.2009 - Finalistas

November 29, 2009

The First Prize at the International Andrés Segovia Classical Guitar Competition was yesterday added to the awards list of Dimitri. At the final competition concert "which was demonstrating the highest level of the interpretation" Dimitri played the 'Concierto Nº 3 Elegiaco' by Leo Brouwer (1939) with the Andrés Segovia Orchestra.

(c)InfoCostaTropical.com

(c)GranadaHoy.com

November 10, 2009

The First Alexander Frauchi International Guitar Competition found place in Moscow from the 5th till the 9th of November. Dimitri Illarionov as one of the organizers and jury members is very satisfied with the results: “It was the first international competition named after my Teacher. I am happy that we succeeded to carry it out and I am very thankful to the family of my Teacher Alexander Kamillovich and to everybody who supported this project.”

At the end of the concert of the French guitarist and composer Roland Dyens who was the chief jury member the audience was surprised by the spontaneous duo of Roland in Dimitri playing the most popular piece by Dyens - Tango en skaï.

November 5, 2009

The new movie "Passenger" by russian director Stanislav Govorukhin is telling a story about a lady travelling on the war ship. The soundtrack was composed by the famous Russian Alexey Rybnikov who has invited Dimitri Illarionov to take part in the recordings. Classical guitar is playing one of the main roles in the soundtrack.

November 1, 2009

November the 1st, 2009: The jury of the Barrios WorldWideWeb Competition has announced for finalists and invited them to Paraguay - homeland of Augustín Barrios - to take part in the Grand Finale. The only one non-latin-american participant is Dimitri Illarionov. You as well can take part in the voting for the the Personal WorldWide Guitarist Prize which ist taking place online till December the 4th.

June 30, 2009

The concert season 2008/2009 is over and it is time to overview the results. The Tarrega Awards were a remarkable start. It was followed by a number of projects which has become a tradition for Dimitri: performing with various european and russian orchestras and conductors. "Cultural and geographical variety, strong distinctions of the programs and specifics of the concert halls - all this is fascinating me. That is the reason I am always happy to play with orchestras," - Dimitri says.

Our evidence is a noteworthy list of orchestra projects of the past season:

03.10.2008 Vercelli, Italy, Viotti Festival - Camerata Ducale Orchestra, Conductor - Paolo Ferrara

19-21.06.2009 Valencia, Castellon (Spain) - Castellon Symphony Orchestra, Conductor - Henry Adams (Holland)

January 1, 2009

What does it mean, to be an artist? What are the challenges of the classical guitar? What is the way to share the art? All these and many questions has been answered by Dimitri in his interview with Jens Hausmann for the german magazine Akustik Gitarre.

Download interview (585 KB) We are sorry this interview is available in German only. Please contact Ekaterina Stäbler (pr@illarionov.com) for more information.

September 8, 2008

Last Friday, September 5th, in Benicassim (Spain) Dimitri became the winner of the International Guitar Competition of Francisco Tarrega. For the first time in 42 years the winner of Tarrega competition (which is one of the most prestigious International Guitar Competitions in the world) is from Russia. Together with the First Prize Dimitri got The Prize for the Best Interpretation of Tarrega piece and Premio del Publico (Public Prize).

Read in Spanish the article by Antonio Gasco

October 14, 2006

"Tages-Anzeiger" (Zurich, Switzerland): September 14, 2006

Michael Eidenbenz

(...) A rarity in the realm of classical virtuosi - a guitarist and - what is not a rarity - also a Russian. And he is - extremely rare! - undoubtedly blessed with the ominous star gene, which is also reflected in a career that has already taken off strongly across the continents.

(...) Dimitri Illarionov played Joaquin Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez", once again with Vladimir Fedoseyev and his Moscow Orchestra. And indeed with such temperament, musicianship, richness of colour, radiance, sense of timing and feeling the acoustic qualities of his soft-toned instrument that the combination of all these abilities, coupled with an evident gift for entertainment, is the best expressed in one single word: wow!

from the article "Three Russians, three temperaments".

August 13, 2005

"El Norte" (Monterrey, México): April 24, 2005

Alejandro Fernandez

Words are not enough to describe the success of the guitarist Dimitri Illarionov during closing of the sixth edition of the International Guitar Festival promoted by Escuela Superior de Música y Danza.

In his debut on Mexican land, his performance was so successful, that the Russian musician had to delight the audience with three encores at the end of his recital concluded at almost 11 p.m.

The quality of his technique, his sensibility and intelligence as a performer as well as charisma and cordiality as a person outshine everything what can be said about his performance. One more time, words are not enough.

It was gratifying being part of this event and admire the boundless talent of the 25-year old artist surely destined to find exceptional fame and worldwide recognition. From the very beginning of the concert started with «Grande Ouverture Op. 61» by Giuliani, the quality and perfection of his performance left us astonished. It rarely happens that the performer is worthy of «bravos» to the degree he was.

Dimitri Illaryonov is an artist from any point of view - not just his techniques but also the way his music fills up your heart and mind. His deep sensibility made us tremble from the beginning to the end; his ability to color and project the music in every step was unique.

Truly, this guitarist is a phenomenon.

And that not being enough, the program he played had an impeccable taste from the classical of the guitar like Agustin Barrios and Castelnuovo-Tedesco to contemporary composers, meaning the works of Gilardino, Tansman, Ivanov-Kramskoi, Balkanski, Koshkin and Assad - the originality and ingenuity of all parts of his program were just perfect.

It is difficult for me to talk about the interpretative quality of one piece over another because he was outstanding in all of them. Perhaps, one might distinguish the pieces with lyric inspiration causing a genuine emotion because of the intensity they were played with - pieces, in which he gave a masterful testimony of a vibrant, passionate and eminent performance multiplied by the excellence of his skills.

«Sonata», by the Bulgarian Balkanski, where he faced the register of contemporary language with absolute conviction deserves an admirable mentioning. Another special moment was «Pregunta» played unexpectedly to pay homage to the composer Ernesto Cordero who was in the concert hall. It was very emotional and received very well by the audience.

In short, it was a memorable concert for which we have to thank the organizers, Pedro Salcedo, Claudio Tarris and Arnoldo Nerio.

Congratulations!!