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Arts & Entertainment

Southampton Arts Festival Returns

Chamber music will be performed by prize-winning professionals and talented college students during the Southampton Arts Festival from Aug. 18 to 25 at the Southampton Cultural Center.

Even more chamber music will be heard in the Hamptons when the Southampton Arts Festival begins on Thursday.

The series of concerts will be held at the through Aug. 25, overlapping with the tail end of the , which started the last week of July and continues through through Aug. 21.

Violinist Dmitri Berlinsky and pianist Elena Baksht founded Southampton Arts Festival last year. The impetus was to reunite far flung friends and colleagues to make serious music together, Berlinsky said.

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Berlinsky has visited Southampton for years and thought it a great place to play music, teach intensives and perform while being a stone-throw’s away from the ocean. “Southampton is my most favorite place in the U.S.,” said Berlinsky, who was born in Russia.

The festival is presenting four evening concerts featuring award-winning musicians. Many of the musicians were born and trained in the former Soviet Union. Others are from the Ukraine, Poland, Israel and the United States.

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Two free daytime concerts feature accomplished college students, who participate in intensive workshops, lessons and rehearsals during the festival.

Evening concerts include works by Haydn, Tchaikovsky, Mozart and Schubert.

Turning toward contemporary is MusicScapes by Octavio Vazquez. The new work is inspired by festival faculty member Katya Chilingiri's photographs depicting music and instruments.

Vazquez consulted with Chilingiri while writing the piece, which will be performed Aug. 22 as an exhibition of Chilingiri's images is on display. 

This year, the festival includes 10 professional performers. They include Berlinsky, Baksht, violinist Anna Rabinova, cellist Natalia Khoma, double bassist Leonid Finkelshteyn, violinist Yoram Youngerman and others.

The list of competitions won within the group is staggering.

They include the Paganini International Violin Competition, the Tchaikovsky International Competition, the Bach International Competition and the Artist International Competition among others.

Most of the musicians have performed internationally and played at prestigious venues and festivals. Many teach at colleges and
universities in the United States.

The talent of the performers allows the presentation of challenging pieces that showcase virtuoso playing, Berlinsky said.

One highlight is the Tchaikovsky Trio op.50 in A-Major performed on opening night on Thursday, Berlinsky said. Another piece designed to demonstrate virtuoso playing is the Tchaikovsky String Sextet Souvenir de Florence, he said. The piece will be performed on Aug. 20.

Providing an intensive learning experience for invited students is another important part of the festival, Berlinsky said. They hope to open the learning process to others for next year’s festival, he added.

Berlinsky is an international award-winning violinist. As a teacher, he’s given master classes internationally. He is a professor at the College of Music at Michigan State University.

Baksht also teaches at the College of Music at Michigan State University. She has performed extensively nationally and internationally. She has degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and The Juilliard School.

Daytime concerts are free. Evening concerts are $20. Tickets can be purchased through the . Find more information at southamptonartsfestival.org.

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