Winning Pianists Arrive

Composer Aaron Copland once said, “To stop the flow of music would be like the stopping of time itself, incredible and inconceivable.” But in the poor, remote areas of Russia and Ukraine, becoming a musician, even for talented children, is closer to the unrealizable than Copland would have thought.

Enter the Guzik Foundation, a million-dollar scholarship program founded in Palo Alto, California by Russian-born industrialist Nahum Guzik. The foundation supports the artistic endeavors of a small group of talented musicians selected by competition. The best of these become Guzik Foundation Award Winners.

This year, Ukrainian-born winners Dinara Nadzhafova and Ilya Petrov are coming to Sanders Theatre at Harvard as part of a tour covering major U.S cities, including Chicago, New York, Houston, and Miami.

By the age of 10, when most of us were still learning how to add and subtract fractions, Nadzhafova was playing the piano in musical festivals and even snagging first place in a few international competitions.

Now, at 17, her résumé of prizes has grown lengthy. Nadzhafova’s chaperone, Svetlana Gorzhevskaya, the program director for arts and culture for the foundation, says that competitions are essential for young pianists. “It’s one of the major ways to expose yourself,” she says.

Nadzhafova is now applying to American conservatories, including the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, where she hopes to study with Garry Grafman. She could apply to the Moscow Conservatory, where she says she would be accepted. Unfortunately, the Conservatory is only free for Russians and Nadzhafova’s Ukrainian citizenship precludes her from that opportunity. In contrast, the Curtis Institute provides full scholarships to all of its students. However, there’sa catch: the the admission rate is less than 6 percent.

Nadzhafova, now in the equivalent of her senior year of high school, is so busy with auditions and SATs that she spends what little free time she has sleeping. “About three hours a day,” she says. “Usually, I’m doing homework, sleeping, or playing in concerts.”

And as for a social life, she says, laughing, “I don’t know what even means a ‘social life’ in English. But I think I don’t have a social life.”

She perhaps puts it best when she explains the composition of her average day: “The whole day is work.”

For serious pianists, there is often a choice between a solo career and teaching. “At this point, she is not ready to sit down and become a teacher,” Gorzhevskaya says of her ward.

It’s clear that, despite the stress of competing, Nadzhafova loves to perform.

Nadzhafova has prepared a diverse program for Sunday’s concert at Sanders, with works by Sergei Tanyev, Schumann, and Prokofiev.

Ilya Petrov, 21, the other performer, expresses the same enthusiasm about music as Nadzhafova.

Faced with similar financial and citizenship problems, Petrov hopes to tour as a pianist, playing his favorite composer’s works in the Liszt Piano Competitions. He has prepared an all-Liszt program for Sunday’s concert.

Petrov stressed that he is extremely grateful for the Guzik Foundation, which “support[s] our difficult music life in Russia.”