Natalia Kartashova, guest piano soloist for the UCLA Symphony, remembers the intense competition that young musicians faced in Russia. She said she remembers one experience from when she was a young girl: A few of her classmates cornered another student out in the streets and broke his fingers so that he would fail the auditions for the upcoming international music competition.
Kartashova said that, while Russia was a place of intense competition in musicianship, UCLA is a place of support.
After an intensive seven-day audition and 10 long weeks of rehearsal, the UCLA Symphony and Kartashova will present the fall concert in Schoenberg Hall on Wednesday.
Under the direction of professor of orchestral studies Neal Stulberg, as well as two graduate student conductors Ryan Dudenbostel and Jorge Uzcategui, the UCLA Symphony will perform Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s overture to “Die Zauberflöte,” Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor” and AntonÃn Dvorák’s “Symphony No. 8 in G Major.”
“They are good classic repertories,” said graduate student conductor Uzcategui. “The rehearsal process is very enjoyable, … and the concert is the celebration of this process.”
The UCLA Symphony, founded in 2002, is a campus-wide organization that is open to all students, staff and faculty. It is a year-long program that holds auditions at the beginning of each academic year.
After rehearsing for 10 weeks, the Symphony holds a concert at the end of each respective quarter. In the past, it has performed classic pieces by a wide range of famous composers like Claude-Achille Debussy, Mozart, Leonard Bernstein and Ludwig van Beethoven.
In addition to learning from UCLA faculty, the Symphony also invited Kartashova, a doctoral candidate in piano performance at UCLA, to play as a guest soloist.
Kartashova has played the piano since she was 4 years old in Saint Petersburg.
Five years ago, Kartashova moved to California, where she entered the music program at UCLA, while also being seven and a half months pregnant.
According to Kartashova, at UCLA, she found a sanctuary and a life-long mentor, Vitaly Margulis, professor of piano.
“UCLA is my home. It is like a church to me. You know you can do anything … unlike Moscow, (where) it is all competition. Here, people are ready to help you out. … It is surreal how musicians help each other,” Kartashova said.
According to Dudenbostel and Uzcategui, the UCLA conducting program has offered them the experience of a lifetime and provides them with opportunities to take part in something beautiful.
“There’s no better feeling than the communicative relationship between the conductor and the ensemble. We do not play the orchestra, we preside over the process and guide the journey. With conducting, we can inspire them to play better,” Dudenbostel said.
Second-year music student and French horn player Ashton Muora said that the UCLA Symphony provides a great place for students to play music, even if they aren’t music students.
“It is nice that this is where students can get together and just play,” Muora said.