ACCLAIMED PIANIST STELLA SIMAKOVA TO PERFORM AT MUHLENBERG COLLEGE
Pianist Stella Simakova will perform at Muhlenberg College, Friday, April 26, 8 p.m. in Empie Theatre, Baker Center for the Arts. Tickets can be purchased at the box office, 484-664-3333. Tickets are $15.Friday, April 12, 2002 03:57 PM
Pianist Stella Simakova will perform at Muhlenberg College, Friday, April 26, 8 p.m. in Empie Theatre, Baker Center for the Arts. Tickets can be purchased at the box office, 484-664-3333. Tickets are $15. The performance will include pieces by Beethoven, Schumann, Chopin, and Liszt. This is the final performance in Muhlenberg's 2001-02 Piano Series.
On just 24 hours notice, Russian-born Simakova gave a recital at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts to critical acclaim, which triggered a chain reaction that launched her U.S. career. Sir Andre Previn invited her to play the Saint-Saens Second Concerto with the Orchestra of St. Luke's in Caramoor in 1996, and then came an invitation by Lincoln Center to offer a recital in Avery Fisher Hall as part of the 1997 Mostly Mozart Festival. Simakova now regularly shares her artistry with audiences throughout the United States and Europe.
More recently, Simakova has performed with the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Radio and Television Orchestra, the Northeaster Penn, Philharmonic as well as solo performances at the Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, Carnegie Hall, Tully Hall and the Bolshoi Philharmonic Hall.
Simakova was awarded First Prize in the 1993 East and West Artists International Competition, First Prize at the 1993 Gina Bachauer Piano Scholarship Competition, Special Prize at the 1990 Frederick Chopin International Piano Competition, First Prize at the 1990 Chopin National Competition in Russia, and First Prize at the 1989 Concerto Competition in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Simakova received a master's degree from Julliard in 1995 and currently pursues her performance career in New York. The New York Times review described Simakova as "A performer of strength and delicacy with easy virtuosity, sparkle and wit."
