Categories: Concerts

Marina Magazinnik, piano, and Pamela McClain, narrator

Friday, February 22, 2019 — 5:30pm
Peter and the Wolf by Sergey Prokofiev

Program:

Peter and the Wolf, Op. 67  (1936) by Sergey Prokofiev (1891-1953)
piano transcription by composer

McClain and Magazinnik

Marina Magazinnik received her Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Ph.D. degrees from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where she studied piano with Jacob Milstein and chamber music with Konstantin Adzhemov. Upon completion of her Ph.D. dissertation, she was invited to conduct a series of lectures at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, as part of the course entitled “History and Theory of Piano Performances.” During her years in Russia she gave numerous solo and chamber music performances, and recorded for Moscow radio and television. Her performances include solo recitals and chamber music concerts in Scriabin, Glinka, and Tchaikovsky museums, and performances in many conservatories and concert halls throughout Russia.

In 1992, Ms. Magazinnik moved to Boston, MA, where she became active as a teacher, accompanist, and chamber musician throughout New England. Ms. Magazinnik served as a professor at the Northeastern University music department for sixteen years, and was a faculty member of the Brookline Music School for twenty-two years. While in Boston, Ms. Magazinnik performed in a permanent duo with violinist Tamara Smirnova, Associate Concertmaster, Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Concertmaster, Boston Pops. Her other performances include solo and chamber music concerts for the Graubart-Irving Concert Fund, Longy School of Music, New England Conservatory, and Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society. She worked as an accompanist for James Buswell and Marylou Speaker Churchill, of the New England Conservatory, and Roman Totenberg of Boston University, and has performed many concerts with violinist Janet Packer, of the Longy School of Music.

During her time in Boston, Ms. Magazinnik was often invited to serve as judge for piano competitions throughout New England, including the prestigious Steinway Society Piano Competition. Since August 2016, Ms. Magazinnik has lived in New Mexico, where she became a faculty member at the New Mexico School of Music, and continues to establish herself as a piano teacher and chamber musician.

Pamela McClain is organist at First Congregational Church UCC in Albuquerque, and pianist for the High Holy Days at Beit Tikva.  She studied piano and organ at Oberlin and has a BA in Japanese studies from the University of Colorado and a Master’s in Collaborative Piano from Longy School of Music.  She’s performed nagauta (shamisen) in Japan, harpsichord continuo here and there, toured for several years with Trio Monte Verde, which she founded, and accompanied masterclasses with Lucy Shelton, Robert Willoughby, and Phyllis Curtin.  A third-generation organist, she has served in nearly every denomination.

Besides directing small theater productions she has worked in many non-musical jobs, developed an exhibit of her collection of tenugui for the Peabody Museum of Salem, served as the first Executive Director of the Japan Society of Vermont and staged mass political protests in two states.  In recent years she has loved performing around 10 programs more than 100 times in senior residences and became known for her amusing repartee and ability to engage seniors in listening to unfamiliar classical music.  She narrated several performances with virtuoso pianist Alexander Paley: Carnival of the Animals, Babar the Elephant, Debussy’s La boite au jouxjoux, and Peter and the Wolf.  She accompanies choirs in the Santa Fe Schools and loves anything related to opera.