Gretchen Hull: Young in years, mature in performance

Reviewed by Lee Shepherd

It’s said that youth is wasted on the young. Not in the case of pianist Gretchen Hull, who is both very young and musically mature.
Hull, who taped a segment of Expressions Oct. 25 before a select audience in the state-of-the-art WSKG studio in Vestal, played piano with a technical virtuosity and expressiveness that belies her age. She’s a recent college grad, so she’s probably at least in her late teens or early 20s, but she looks about 16.

Rizikov’s love affair with Binghamton continues

Reviewed by Tony Villecco

What can one say about a phenomenon of nature? I am convinced that 12-year-old Canadian pianist Anastasia Rizakov is actually a 40-year-old woman trapped in a child’s body. Deadly talented and mature beyond her years, this most gifted pianist adoringly admitted that she loved the Binghamton audiences and likewise, we love her, too. Her concert last Saturday (Sept. 17) at Binghamton’s First Presbyterian Church was remarkable.

Did you enjoy the arts this week?

Were you out and about in the arts this past week? Did you enjoy a concert, play, reading, gallery show, etc.? What did you like best? (And, if it wasn’t so enjoyable, would you tell us why?) Please join in the conversation.

Young pianist dazzles at Phelps Mansion

Reviewed by Tony Villecco

Anastasia Rizikov, a 10-year-old Canadian-born pianist, raised more than one pair of eyebrows last weekend at her second appearance in Binghamton. Presented by the organization “Classical Pianists of the Future,” this phenomenon of nature left her audience dazzled. Child prodigies are always exciting to hear, and Rizikov delivered the goods.