When things went dark, pioneers of the American West used lanterns to light their way.
A pair of concert pianists is invoking a similar spirit of adventure and risk in Musica Lanterna, an upcoming series of intimate classical performances. Six concerts over the coming months will bring several renowned solo pianists, plus piano-and-cello and guitar-and-clarinet duos, to a downtown event space called Tandem Hall.
“It’ll be a year of exploration and an opportunity to introduce this music to new audiences, we hope,” said Anton Zotov.
Zotov and his Musica Lanterna partner, Dimitri Zhgenti, will launch the concert series Oct. 19, taking turns performing piano classics by historical greats such as Mozart, Schumann, Lizst and Haydn. They will also play a jarringly modern, odd-sounding piece by contemporary Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov that involves reaching into the guts of the piano and slapping its strings.
“It’s very avant-garde, very different,” Zotov said. “It’s 20th century music, preparing us for the future.”
After that inaugural performance, Zotov and Zhgenti, both of whom were born in Eastern Europe and studied music at American universities, will draw on their extensive personal networks to bring several more concert performers to town — most of them also hailing from Eastern Europe.
“We have access to some phenomenal musicians who would never have a reason to come to a city like Vancouver,” Zhgenti said.
The pair hope to draw both seasoned classical music lovers and newbies to Tandem Hall, a Main Street facility that used to overlap with the Boomerang charity shop and cafe. Boomerang is still there but smaller now. Tandem is operated by CoLab Coworking, which rents office and event space to business startups.
Since Tandem Hall only holds 250 seats, Zotov and Zhgenti said, audiences will enjoy being up close and personal with the talent. An informal question-and-answer period will follow every performance.
“We want to erase the boundary between artist and audience. Everybody can be more engaged,” Zhgenti said.
He hopes people who don’t know the magic of classical music will come give it a try, he said.
“Classical music is an acquired taste,” he said. “It requires some investment, but after that it becomes so rewarding. Parents should invest in their children this way.”
Startup season
Dimitri Zhgenti was already singing in public, and rapidly advancing in piano studies, when still a child growing up in the Republic of Georgia. His family moved to Vancouver when he was 11 years old, and he studied here with concert pianist Joanna Hodges. He graduated from Heritage High School and Indiana University, where he studied with the renowned Alexander Toradze and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in piano performance.
Now, Zhgenti runs his own Orchards-area piano studio. He has twice been a special guest with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and serves on the group’s board of directors.
Zhgenti was attending Indiana University when he met fellow piano student Anton Zotov, a native of Ukraine, who went on to earn a Ph.D. at Florida State University. Zotov came to visit Zhgenti in Vancouver frequently over the past few years and fell in love with the beauty of the Pacific Northwest along the way, he said.
“Dimitri invited me to come here and I didn’t want to leave,” Zotov said. “I decided to explore and try to find myself here. To find a use for myself here.”
He’s found several uses. In August, Zotov joined the adjunct music faculty at George Fox University in Newberg, Ore. Meanwhile, he’s been branching out from performing and teaching to try his hand at organizing and promoting classical concerts, he said.
Musica Lanterna is not a nonprofit. Zhgenti and Zotov said they want to make their own decisions and keep things moving quickly.
“We don’t have a big budget,” Zhgenti said. “It’s personal funds and some family investment.”
The duo is hopeful but realistic, they said.
“Vancouver is a city that is growing,” Zotov said. “If the community is interested, we’ll have more than one season. If not, we won’t.”
