11:15
Cambridge University
October 21
Winstanley Lecture Theatre
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 the 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 did this process happen and what were its cornerstones? How is the development of the instrument correlated with the reality of the social environment in different time periods? These and many other questions will be answered in this talk.