Moscow exhibition honours legendary pianist and composer Oleg Karavaichuk

If you’re a music fan and in Moscow, pay a visit to an exhibition in honour of unorthodox and eccentric pianist and composer Oleg Karavaichuk, who died earlier this year.

The How can I play an E note multimedia exhibition will open on 27 August at the Moscow branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Arts (NCCA), within the framework of a special “Night at the Movies” event, which forms part of the celebrations to mark 2016 as the Year of Cinema in Russia. The opening will also include a screening of a documentary film about Karavaichuk by Andrés Duque, entitled Oleg and rare art.

At the heart of the exhibition, curated by Irina Gorlovaya and Karina Karaeva, will be a collage of projections of fragments from ten Russian films, for which Karavaichuk wrote the music.

According to a press statement, the exhibition will see “completely different compositions joined into a single monstrous beauty of harmony”.

Karavaichuk died in June in St Petersburg at the age of 88. Born in 1927 in Kiev, he composed the soundtrack of around 200 films, shows and ballets, working with such acclaimed film directors as Kira Muratova, Sergei Parajanov and Vasily Shukshin. Among others, he wrote the music for such films as Mum Got Married (1969, dir. Vasily Melnikov), Two Captains (1955, dir. Vladimir Vengerov), The Prince and the Pauper (1972, dir. Vadim Gaunzer), Brief Encounters (1968, dir. Kira Muratova) and The Long Goodbye (1971, dir. Kira Muratova). He was known for his provocative performances, playing the piano while on his knees, or with a pillowcase on his head.

Source: Afisha and TASS (in Russian)