Organizing organ concerts: a special talent? Part 1: A Russian dissertation by Olga de Kort-Koulikova

Articles

Olga de Kort-Koulikova Organizing organ concerts: a special talent? Part 1: A Russian dissertation
Het ORGEL 108 (2012), nr. 2, 11-15 [summary]

Each year dozens of Dutch churches and concert halls open their doors for walk-in, lunch-time, and evening concerts with organ music. Each year anew foundations and organ committees contemplate programming, publicity, subsidies, honoraria, and heating costs. And each year the question arises again: will this concert, this series, or this organ festival attract enough listeners? Because the number of listeners influences the profitability of concerts, subsidies, honoraria, heating costs and programming.
These questions are important not only in The Netherlands but also, for example, in Russia. Russia lacks a centuries-long organ tradition, but attention for the organ has grown enormously there since the 1980s. New organs, an increasing number of organ students, and an interested public have seen in only thirty years’ time the establishment of small and large series, festivals, and other organ events. In 2010 the first dissertation on the production of organ concerts was defended. The author, Oleg Belotserkovky, teaches chamber music at the conservatory in Saratov and is director of the school of art there. He is also the motor of his own production bureau Maestro, and organizer of organ concerts and international organ festivals in Saratov. This article reviews his dissertation, also making comparisons with the Dutch situation.

Conservatory in Saratow