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“GUSLI: from archaic to the present day”, a talk by Olga Shishkina with Q&As
Monday 21 October, 19:00 - 21:00
| £5 – £8
Following her Saturday, October 19th Gusli & Piano duet recital at the Churchill College chapel, Olga Shishkina, an accomplished musician, gusli and kantele artist with over 20 years of experience performing on the international music scene, will deliver a talk about the history of one of the traditional Russian string instruments, called gusli, and demonstrate different playing techniques and unique qualities of this unusual instrument rarely seen on music scenes.
Gusli has always been considered the most ancient Russian string instrument and one of the most beloved ones. One of the unique predecessors of gusli was psalterion, the instrument first mentioned in the Bible and played by King David, the patron of musicians. Starting from the 6th century, gusli has had an incredible history from being the instrument of Russian minstrel-entertainers, skomorokhi, to the instrument of Russian elite and imperial circles and later becoming a versatile academic instrument similar to the violin, they can be heard on the soundtracks of motion pictures and video games being played with symphony orchestras. How this process happened and what were its cornerstones? How the development of the instrument correlated with the reality of social environment in different time periods? These and many other questions will be answered in this talk.
When: Monday 21 October 2024 at 19:00 (doors at 18:30)
Where: Winstanley Lecture theatre, Trinity College New Court, Garret Hostel Lane, Cambridge CB2 1TJ (the entry from St John’s street, opposite the main entrance to Trinity College)
Language: English
Format: in person
Tickets: £8 standard / £5 CamRuSS members & concessions;
access to video recording: £5 standard, free for CamRuSS members & students.
Olga graduated summa cum laude from St. Petersburg Conservatory named after N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov where she studied gusli, piano, organ, and orchestral conducting (2008). Later, in 2012, she pursued postgraduate studies at Sibelius Academy (Helsinki, Finland). In 2022 she graduated with the highest grade from Berklee College of Music (Boston, Massachusetts).
Olga Shishkina is the author of arrangements and transcriptions for gusli and piano using a number of new techniques for playing the instrument, expanding its performing capabilities. Her musical repertoire includes not only works of the early Baroque, classical and impressionist music, but also her own original arrangements and compositions.
She performed in Russia and beyond: Conservatoire Rachmaninoff and Maison russe des sciences et de la culture à Paris (Paris, France), Trinity Episcopal Church and Legacy Art Gallery (Santa Barbara, California), Mariinsky Concert Hall (St. Petersburg, Russia), His Majesty’s Theatre (Aberdeen, Scotland), Royal Swedish Opera (Stockholm, Sweden) and others. During the last few years she composed music for the Finnish documentary “To Siberia with My Love” (dir. P. Flinckenberg) in 2017, and took part in soundtrack recording projects (“Moscow Noir” in Sweden in 2018; “Torchlight 3” in the USA in 2020).
Please check Olga’s YouTube channel.
