Lydia Kavina
Encyclopedia
Lydia Kavina is a Russia
n theremin
player, and is currently the leading performing musician on the instrument.
The grandniece of Léon Theremin
, Kavina was born in Moscow
and began studying the instrument under the direction of Theremin when she was nine years old. Five years later, she gave her first theremin concert, which marked the beginning of a musical career that has so far led to more than 1000 theatre, radio, and television performances around the world.
Kavina has appeared as a solo performer at such prestigious venues as the Bolshoi Saal of the Moscow Conservatory
, Moscow International Art Centre with National Philarmonic of Russia under Vladimir Spivakov
and Bellevue Palace in Berlin, the residence of the German President. She has also performed at leading festivals, including Caramoor with the Orchestra St. Luke's, New York's Lincoln Center Festival, Holland Music Festival, Martinu Festival, Electronic Music Festival in Burge and Moscow “Avantgarde”.
Kavina performs most of the classical theremin repertoire, including popular works for theremin by Bohuslav Martinů
, Joseph Schillinger
, and Spellbound by Miklos Rozsa
, as well as Equatorial by Edgard Varèse
and the lesser known Testament by Nicolas Obouchov
.
In addition to giving concerts, Kavina is a composer of music for theremin and teaches the instrument in Western Europe
, Russia
and the United States
. Together with the London Philharmonic Orchestra
, she played theremin for Howard Shore
's soundtrack of the Oscar-winning film Ed Wood, as well as for eXistenZ
(also by Shore) and The Machinist
. Additionally, Kavina has recorded several compact discs and is the subject of an instructional video from the theremin manufacturer Moog Music
. She was also featured in stage productions such as Alice and The Black Rider
(both conceived and directed by Robert Wilson
, with music by Tom Waits
) at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg, and in collaboration with the Russian experimental surf band Messer Chups
.
Lydia Kavina is an active promoter of new experimental music for the theremin. In collaboration with Barbara Buchholz and Kamerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, Kavina performed a number of concerts of contemporary works for theremin in Germany in 2005-2007 as part of the Touch! Don't Touch! - Music for Theremin project.
The most notable project of her recent career is her theremin solo in The Little Mermaid, a ballet
by Lera Auerbach
, choreographed by John Neumeier
in Copenhagen New Opera Haus and Hamburg State Opera
(2007).
Kavina has completed a number of her own compositions for theremin including a Concerto for Theremin and Symphony Orchestra, first performed by the Boston Modern Orchestra under the direction of Gil Rose.
Kavina holds a degree in composition from The Moscow Conservatory, where she also completed a postgraduate assistantship program.
Collaborations
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n theremin
Theremin
The theremin , originally known as the aetherphone/etherophone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox is an early electronic musical instrument controlled without discernible physical contact from the player. It is named after its Russian inventor, Professor Léon Theremin, who patented the device...
player, and is currently the leading performing musician on the instrument.
The grandniece of Léon Theremin
Léon Theremin
Léon Theremin was a Russian and Soviet inventor. He is most famous for his invention of the theremin, one of the first electronic musical instruments. He is also the inventor of interlace, a technique of improving the picture quality of a video signal, widely used in video and television technology...
, Kavina was born in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
and began studying the instrument under the direction of Theremin when she was nine years old. Five years later, she gave her first theremin concert, which marked the beginning of a musical career that has so far led to more than 1000 theatre, radio, and television performances around the world.
Kavina has appeared as a solo performer at such prestigious venues as the Bolshoi Saal of the Moscow Conservatory
Moscow Conservatory
The Moscow Conservatory is a higher musical education institution in Moscow, and the second oldest conservatory in Russia after St. Petersburg Conservatory. Along with the St...
, Moscow International Art Centre with National Philarmonic of Russia under Vladimir Spivakov
Vladimir Spivakov
Vladimir Teodorovich Spivakov is a leading Russian conductor and violinist best known for his work with the chamber orchestra....
and Bellevue Palace in Berlin, the residence of the German President. She has also performed at leading festivals, including Caramoor with the Orchestra St. Luke's, New York's Lincoln Center Festival, Holland Music Festival, Martinu Festival, Electronic Music Festival in Burge and Moscow “Avantgarde”.
Kavina performs most of the classical theremin repertoire, including popular works for theremin by Bohuslav Martinů
Bohuslav Martinu
Bohuslav Martinů was a prolific Czech composer of modern classical music. He was of Czech and Rumanian ancestry. Martinů wrote six symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores and a large body of orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental works. Martinů became a violinist in the Czech Philharmonic...
, Joseph Schillinger
Joseph Schillinger
Joseph Schillinger was a composer, music theorist, and composition teacher. He was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine and died in New York City.-Life and career:...
, and Spellbound by Miklos Rozsa
Miklós Rózsa
Miklós Rózsa was a Hungarian-born composer trained in Germany , and active in France , England , and the United States , with extensive sojourns in Italy from 1953...
, as well as Equatorial by Edgard Varèse
Edgard Varèse
Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varèse, , whose name was also spelled Edgar Varèse , was an innovative French-born composer who spent the greater part of his career in the United States....
and the lesser known Testament by Nicolas Obouchov
Nikolai Obukhov
Nikolai Borisovich Obukhov was a modernist and mystic Russian composer, active mainly in France. An avant-garde figure who took as his point of departure the late music of Scriabin, he fled Russia along with his family after the Bolshevik Revolution, settling in Paris...
.
In addition to giving concerts, Kavina is a composer of music for theremin and teaches the instrument in Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Together with the London Philharmonic Orchestra
London Philharmonic Orchestra
The London Philharmonic Orchestra , based in London, is one of the major orchestras of the United Kingdom, and is based in the Royal Festival Hall. In addition, the LPO is the main resident orchestra of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera...
, she played theremin for Howard Shore
Howard Shore
Howard Leslie Shore is a Canadian composer, notable for his film scores. He has composed the scores for over 80 films, most notably the scores for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, for which he won three Academy Awards. He is also a consistent collaborator with director David Cronenberg,...
's soundtrack of the Oscar-winning film Ed Wood, as well as for eXistenZ
EXistenZ
eXistenZ is a 1999 body horror/science fiction film by Canadian director David Cronenberg. It stars Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jude Law....
(also by Shore) and The Machinist
The Machinist
The Machinist is a 2004 English-language Spanish psychological thriller film directed by Brad Anderson and written by Scott Kosar....
. Additionally, Kavina has recorded several compact discs and is the subject of an instructional video from the theremin manufacturer Moog Music
Moog Music
Moog Music is an American company based in Asheville, North Carolina which manufactures electronic musical instruments. The current Moog Music is the second company to trade under that name.-R.A. Moog Co. and the original Moog Music:...
. She was also featured in stage productions such as Alice and The Black Rider
The Black Rider
The Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets is a self-billed "musical fable" in the avant-garde tradition created through the collaboration of theatre director Robert Wilson, musician Tom Waits, and writer William S. Burroughs. Wilson was largely responsible for the design and direction....
(both conceived and directed by Robert Wilson
Robert Wilson (director)
Robert Wilson is an American avant-garde stage director and playwright who has been called "[America]'s — or even the world's — foremost vanguard 'theater artist'". Over the course of his wide-ranging career, he has also worked as a choreographer, performer, painter, sculptor, video...
, with music by Tom Waits
Tom Waits
Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
) at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg, and in collaboration with the Russian experimental surf band Messer Chups
Messer Chups
Messer Chups is an experimental band from St.Petersburg, Russia. The band was founded by Oleg Gitarkin who had previously performed with Oleg Kostrow under the name of Messer für Frau Müller. Messer Chups is often considered a "spin-off" band of Messer für Frau Müller...
.
Lydia Kavina is an active promoter of new experimental music for the theremin. In collaboration with Barbara Buchholz and Kamerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, Kavina performed a number of concerts of contemporary works for theremin in Germany in 2005-2007 as part of the Touch! Don't Touch! - Music for Theremin project.
The most notable project of her recent career is her theremin solo in The Little Mermaid, a ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
by Lera Auerbach
Lera Auerbach
Lera Auerbach is a Russian-born American composer and pianist.-Early life & education:Auerbach was born in Chelyabinsk, a city in the Urals bordering Siberia. She holds degrees in piano and composition from The Juilliard School, where she studied piano with Joseph Kalichstein and composition...
, choreographed by John Neumeier
John Neumeier
John Neumeier is a well-known American ballet dancer, choreographer, and director. He has been the director and chief choreographer of the Hamburg Ballet since 1973. 5 years later he founded the Hamburg Ballet School, which also includes a boarding school...
in Copenhagen New Opera Haus and Hamburg State Opera
Hamburg State Opera
The Hamburg State Opera is one of the leading opera companies in Germany.Opera in Hamburg dates back to 2 January 1678 when the "Opern-Theatrum" was inaugurated with a performance of a biblical Singspiel by Johann Theile...
(2007).
Kavina has completed a number of her own compositions for theremin including a Concerto for Theremin and Symphony Orchestra, first performed by the Boston Modern Orchestra under the direction of Gil Rose.
Kavina holds a degree in composition from The Moscow Conservatory, where she also completed a postgraduate assistantship program.
CDs
- Music from the Ether, Mode records, 1999
- Concerto per Theremin. Live in ItalyConcerto per Theremin. Live in ItalyConcerto per Theremin. Live in Italy is Lydia Kavina's second compact disc. It was recorded in Italy in 1998 and then released on CD by Teleura in 2000.-Theremin & Lydia Kavina:...
, Teleura, 2000 - Touch! Don't Touch! - Music for Theremin with Barbara BuchholzBarbara BuchholzBarbara Buchholz is a Berlin-based german musician and composer. She is one of the leading Theremin-players of the world.- Life :...
, Wergo, 2006 - Spellbound!Spellbound!Spellbound! was a computer game made by The Learning Company. The original game is compatible with computers running DOS 3.3 or higher and a later CD release added Windows 95 and Macintosh compatibility.-Gameplay:...
, Mode records, 2008
Collaborations
- Music for Films IIIMusic for Films IIIMusic for Films III is the third entry in Brian Eno's "Music for Films" series. It features tracks by Brian Eno, Roger Eno, Michael Brook, and Harold Budd among others....
Music by Brian EnoBrian EnoBrian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
, Opal Records, 1988 - Ed Wood: Original Soundtrack Recording Music by Howard ShoreHoward ShoreHoward Leslie Shore is a Canadian composer, notable for his film scores. He has composed the scores for over 80 films, most notably the scores for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, for which he won three Academy Awards. He is also a consistent collaborator with director David Cronenberg,...
, Hollywood Records, 1994 - eXistenZ, Soundtrack Music by Howard Shore, RCA Victor, 1999
- Black Black Magic Music by Messer ChupsMesser ChupsMesser Chups is an experimental band from St.Petersburg, Russia. The band was founded by Oleg Gitarkin who had previously performed with Oleg Kostrow under the name of Messer für Frau Müller. Messer Chups is often considered a "spin-off" band of Messer für Frau Müller...
, Solnze Records, 2002 - Crazy Price Music by Messer Chups, Solnze Records, 2003
- Vamp Babes , Upgrade Version Music by Messer Chups, Solnze Records, 2004
- Baehlamms Fest Music by Olga NeuwirthOlga NeuwirthOlga Neuwirth is an Austrian composer.As a child at the age of seven, Neuwirth began lessons on trumpet. She later studied composition in Vienna at the Vienna Academy of Music and Performing Arts under Erich Urbanner, while studying at the Electroacoustic Institute...
, Kairos, 2003 - The Machinist, Soundtrack Music by Roque BañosRoque BañosRoque Baños is a Spanish music composer. He received the Goya Award for Best Original Score in 2008.-Education:...
, Melodramma Records, 2005
Videos
- Mastering the Theremin, Big Briar, 1995
- Concerto per Theremin. Live in Italy, Teleura, 2001