MY NAME IS MILANA AND I AM A LONDON-BASED SOPRANO, IMPROVISER, PROJECT CURATOR, AND VOICE TEACHER.
OPERA + IMPROVISATION
All my life I was interested in operatic repertoire and the specifics of its singing, which is almost athletically challenging and conducts with divine aesthetics. While studying at the Royal Academy of Music, I was immersed into learning the organism of the theatre and its citizens. The moment when you come into the rehearsal space after working on the opera and the role completely on your own, almost isolated, is like a puzzle came together. Suddenly you are a part of a team surrounded by the ideas, decisions and actions which brings the entire picture together.
My operatic repertoire includes roles such as: Elisabetta (Roberto Devereux), Najad (Ariadne auf Naxos), Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi), Emilie (Les Indes Galantes), Mll Silberklang (Der Schauspieldirektor), Norina (Don Pasquale), and Micaëla (Carmen).
In February 2022 I went to Vilnius/ Lithuania to find out what is improvisation. That is where my own experimental semi- staged improv performance was born under the name ‘The Artist is Present 2.0: Musical Response’ which reflected the idea of Marina Abramović’s performance back in MoMA/ New York. It was debuted in Balkonas Theatre in Lithuanian Academy of Music and Drama and performed in numerous places around London and Düsseldorf.
CONTEMPORARY CHAMBER MUSIC
ART SONG +
It all started in 2003 in Kerch, Crimea. My classmate drags me to unknown place reassuring me that it’s going to be fun, next moment I am singing Alla Pugacheva’s ‘Arlekino’ as an audition piece in front of the entire choir.
Teacher: ‘Why do you want to be here?’
Me: ‘I want to find purpose in life’
As a result I was accepted to the Serduk’s School of Art, Music and Dance with a scholarship. I was only eight years old.
The moment when I fell in love with art song happened when I was working on Mussorgsky song cycle ‘The Nursery’ and Tchaikovsky romances. I remember the pleasant sensation of unwrapping the context of the poetries and the unnerving journey of finding an interpretation just for it to be lost on the next moment.
Through my career, my recitals were showcased on stages such as: Glazunov Concert Hall and Shalyapin Museum (Russia/ St. Petersburg), Encuentro de la Musica de Santander Festival (Spain/Santander), David Josefowitz Recital Hall (UK/London) and Angela Burguess Recital Hall (UK/London), Köln Universität für Medien (Germany/Cologne) etc.
Gradually, the love for art songs brought me to the vocal chamber repertoire and later on to contemporary chamber music. The combination of two brought to the creation of the recital programme for voice and cello which was created by me and my colleague cellist and composer Ben Finlay. It explored Russian poetry in the context of global contemporary composition. It included works written by John Tavener, Elena Langer and special collaboration with Brazilian composer Bernardo Simões who wrote ‘Gratitude’, a piece based on Lermontov’s poem. This concert was premiered in Airton Friends Meeting House in North Yorkshire (2019).
EPILOGUE
Music as life direction
It has its ups and downs, its heroes and villains and of course its plot twists. The events in the past brought me to where I am now: a member of the London Improvisers Orchestra, Opera Integra, collaboration with Julian on Lieder recital programmes, curating series of improv concerts in Düsseldorf and Antwerp with Christopher Götzen, as well as the improv club ‘THE POOL’ at The Tower Theater (UK/London) with John Bisset.
