UoN assistant professor and director of performance Dr Xenia Pestova will perform in concert in London for BBC Radio 3 on Thursday March 2 (tonight). The "Open Ear" programme will be broadcast on March 8 and highlights music by female composers to mark the International Women's Day. Pestova's performance features pieces written especially for her to play on piano and toy piano by UK-based composers Nicola LeFanu (UK premiere), Ailis Ni Riain (world premiere), Egidija Medeksaite and Arlene Sierra. The live recording from St John-at-Hackney will be broadcast together with an interview with Xenia Pestova by presenter Sara Mohr-Pietsch.
Pestova says: "I am delighted to be featured in this very important event and share fantastic music by wonderful composers with a wider audience. It's time that broadcasters and presenters took a stand on gender equality by including more music written by women. We are finally starting to see a real shift in mentality, and it's great that concert and festival programmes are starting to move towards a more representative balance."
Pestova is currently on research leave and keeping a busy schedule. Following a recent performance at Nottingham's Royal Concert Hall with music by UoN students and staff (director of composition Dr Elizabeth Kelly), Pestova has upcoming engagements at Iklectik Art Lab in London on March 18, London's iconic concert series "Daylight Music" at the Union Chapel on April 1, and a tour of New Zealand in July and August.
Posted on Thursday 2nd March 2017