Antonina Suhanova joined the Musicians' Company Young Artists' Programme after winning our Maisie Lewis Young Artists' Fund award in 2019. Here she performs Bartok’s Three Burlesques. Antonina says: "I am a London-based Latvian pianist and alumna of the #GuildhallSchoolofMusicandDrama. I have won prizes in several international competitions, and performed in renowned concert halls such as #WigmoreHall, Barbican Hall and #SouthbankCentre in London, Wiener Saal in Salzburg, and Steinway Hall in New York. My professional development has greatly benefited from collaboration with such world-renowned pianists as Ronan O’Hora, Steven Osborne, Yefim Bronfman, Richard Goode, Robert Levin and Matti Raekallio. I have been generously supported by the Hattori Foundation, Help Musicians UK, the Drake Calleja Trust, Making Music UK, and the Musicians’ Company. I selected Bartok’s Three Burlesques, remembering the wonderfully attentive audience of the #MusiciansCompany concert at the Purcell Room in February 2020, where I performed this cycle. The Three Burlesques were published in 1912 after Bartok’s lengthy journey around Romania and Hungary. The composer draws inspiration from folk music and borrows the title from the realm of literature - “burlesques” make fun of social conventions and customs, in a down-to-earth fashion depicting men’s virtues and vices. Bartok fully embraces the genre’s idiom – in a letter to his pupil (and future-wife) Marta Ziegler he offers witty titles for the first burlesque: 'Rondoletto-Capriccio', 'Vengeance is Sweet', 'Play it if you can' or 'Anger because of an interrupted visit'. In the second piece he conjures an image of a rural drunkard through expert use of harmonic language and rhythmic patterns. The third burlesque concludes the cycle in a virtuosically heroic and humorous manner. In these uncertain times audience deserves a small dose of lightheartedness, positive energy and a smile!" -------------------------------------------------- Musicians' Company Profile - http://www.wcom.org.uk/yeoman/antonina-suhanova About the Maisie Lewis Young Artists' Fund - http://www.wcom.org.uk/awards/maisie-lewis-young-artists-fund-and-concordia-foundation-artists-fund Antonina's Website - http://antoninasuhanova.com Antonina's Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/suhanova.antonina Antonina's Instagram - http://www.instagram.com/suhanova.antonina Antonina's Twitter - http://twitter.com/SuhAntonina Antonina's YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNXmkrK_Wu-eo8kESg1gpNA Antonina's SoundCloud - http://soundcloud.com/antoninasuhanova -------------------------------------------------- Join our weekly #MiddayMusic e-news at http://eepurl.com/dv0ccr #MiddayMusic is supported by funds from the Musicians' Company’s Prince’s Prize which received a generous endowment in 2015 from The Eranda Rothschild Foundation and Rothschilds Bank, in memory of Leopold de Rothschild, a Liveryman of the Musicians’ Company for over 50 years. Donate to support The Musicians' Company Young Artists - http://www.justgiving.com/musicianscompanyfund