Opening concert of International Summer Piano Courses of The Conservatoire 2017

Sunday 2 July 2017 at 7:30 pm Concert Hall of Prague Conservatoire /Dvořákovo nábřeží 2/

NIKITA KHNYKIN – piano //

laureate of The Young Piano of the Prague Conservatoire 2016 and the Unicorn Prize „Talent of The Young Piano 2016“

Program:

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Sonata in E flat major KV 282

Ludwig van Beethoven Sonata in E flat major Op. 31 No. 3

Sergei Rachmaninoff Etude – Picture in A minor Op. 39 No. 6 "Little Red Riding Hood" Etude – Picture in E flat major Op. 33 No. 6

Edvard Grieg Lyric Pieces Op. 65 Wedding Day at Troldhaugen Scenes of Country Life Op. 19 III. Carnival Scene

Ferenc Liszt Mephisto Waltz No. 1

Entrée free

Nikita Khnykin was born in 2003 in Norway. He is currently enrolled in the Young Talents program at the Barratt Due Institute of Music in . Despite his young age he has a remarkable list of achievements, including numerous of first prizes and Grand Prix on the national and international contests: Youth Music Contests (Norway, 2013, 2015, 2016), Airola City Music Contest (Italy, 2014), Young Musician (Estonia, 2015), Grand Prize Virtuoso Competition (Austria, 2016), Steinway Piano Competition (Norway-Germany, 2016) and The Young Piano of the Prague Conservatoire 2016 with the Unicorn main prize Talent of The Young Piano. He has received several prestigious scholarships. Nikita is actively involved in concert activity in Oslo, other cities in Norway and in other countries. Participated in music festivals in Norway, Great Britain, Germany, , Lithuania and Greece. He was a soloist with many orchestras with concerts of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, Tchaikovsky and Grieg. Part of his music activity creates chamber music in the piano trio DANIBI (Daniel Ivanov-clarinet, Nikita Khnykin-piano, Birgitta Oftestad-cello) and also duets with clarinet and cello). The Trio was involved in Norwegian-international mentor-talent program “Crescendo” in classical music in 2016. Recently Nikita was selected (exceptionally, outside the criteria) to the three-year mentoring program targeting especially talented Norwegian piano students in age 16-18 (prof. Jiri Hlinka Piano Academy). As a soloist of Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor Op. 16 he played in Oslo with Nordstrand Youth Orchestra in December 2016 and in March 2017 Tchaikovsky’s Concerto in B flat minor Op. 23 with Barratt Due Symphonic Orchestra. He performed on the concert of laureates of The Young Piano of Prague Conservatoire 2016 in the Concert Hall of this school in April this year and in Beethoven Hall of Bolshoi Theatre on the “Moscow Meets Friends International Festival” organized by Vladimir Spivakov International Charity Foundation just in the beginning of June 2017. A pair of days later he played in the solo recital on Grieg Festival in Oslo. He has been invited by violinist Arve Tellefsen to perform on the Festival of Chamber Music at the Royal Palace in Oslo in the occasion of the Norwegian Queen’s birthday in August this year.