Svetlana Berezhnaya (an evening of organ music)

Svetlana Berezhnaya is a brilliant and highly experienced performer with an individual approach to the possibilities afforded by the organ. She is well known in Russia and in Europe as a talented interpreter of classical organ music. Many of the organist’s transcriptions are used by musicians in other countries as a vivid example of works being rethought by their performers. Svetlana Berezhnaya has performed at prestigious concert halls and famous cathedrals throughout the world, among them the Great and Small Halls of the Moscow Conservatoire, the Tchaikovsky Hall, the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre, the Great Hall of the St Petersburg Shostakovich Philharmonic and the Glinka Cappella as well as cathedrals in Moscow, Paris, Vienna, Brussels, San Antonio, New York, The Hague and Graz. 
Svetlana Berezhnaya graduated from the Gnessin Institute (piano studies) and the Kazan State Conservatoire, undertook a postgraduate organ course and trained as an organist at the Brabant Konservatorium (The Netherlands). In 1992 she was a diploma-recipient at the Northern Palmyra international festival, in 1996 she took 1^st prize at the All-Russian Organ Competition and in 2000 she was awarded the title of Honoured Artist of Russia.

The organist has recorded seven CDs on the Pyotr Kondrashin Classical Records label – Romantic Organ (1997), Popular Organ (1999), Romantics of the Past Millennium (2002), The Organ – Relaxation Music (2002), Mysteries of the Russian Soul(2006), The Gates to the Rainbow (music for children, 2007) and Music of Light (2007). In Great Britain in 2008 Quartz Music released Svetlana Berezhnaya’s eighth disc, Serene.

Svetlana Berezhnaya has been a jury member and chair of music competitions including the Safonov All-Russian Youth Piano Competition (2005), the Sole Deo Gloria international organ festival and competition (2009) and the Santa Ceciliainternational organ competition (2011).

Svetlana Berezhnaya has formed unique organ music programmes including a light projection show. Here images are projected onto the faзades of organ pipes and transformed as the organ music is played, altering the form, content, colour and rhythmic tempo. 
Svetlana Berezhnaya collaborates with the finest ensembles, conductors and soloists of Russia, Europe and the USA. She has been partnered by such outstanding performing artists as Sergei Roldugin, Maxim Fedotov, Natalia Gerasimova, Lyudmila Filatova, Elena Mirtova, Andrei Diev, Alexander Trostyansky, Elena Revich, Graf Mourja, Elena Serdechkova, Igor Sharapov, Leo Krдmer, Bruce Polay, Mikhail Lidsky, Mark Cheikhet, Egon Smit and Anna Maria Mendoli. She regularly performs with orchestras and choruses including the St Petersburg Shostakovich Philharmonic (Honoured Ensemble of Russia), the State Philharmonic Orchestra in Mineralnye Vody (Kislovodsk), the State Hermitage Orchestra (St Petersburg), the Province Chamber Orchestra (Naberezhnye Chelny), the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra (Kislovodsk), the Krasnodar Chamber Orchestra, the St Petersburg State Academic Cappella, the State Chamber Chorus of the Republic of Kalmykia and the Russky Parteschamber chorus (Moscow).

Svetlana Berezhnaya currently works at the North Caucuses State Safonov Philharmonic as General Director and organist. She gives master-classes in stage and concert performance psychology. The organist frequently performs in recital in towns and cities in Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France, Switzerland, the USA, Canada and other countries.