Martina Kučinskaitė–who just completed her Master’s in Piano Performance–has been extremely busy and productive during the pandemic, maintaining a steady practice regimen at the college, where she has been allowed access privileges given her lack of an instrument or an adequate practice space, and, recently, entering several international piano competitions and finding great success. Here’s her story:
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“When the pandemic started, most competitions were cancelled or delayed indefinitely, but eventually some of them transitioned into online format. Despite the live performance experience being taken away, motivation to strive for better performance through recording prevailed. Online competitions proved to be a good substitute to keep performers engaged with our craft while staying safe during the global pandemic. It has been a true joy for me to participate in several competitions, described below. I feel grateful that my piano professor Gabrielius Alekna has always motivated and supported me. I was also fortunate to have great pieces in my program, which were eligible in these competitions and allowed me to experience the thrill of participating again.
“The International online competition “Astana-Stars” takes place every month since 2020 Fall. Each competition is dedicated to the different composer and the title of the competition slightly variates every month. The competition holds a lot of various nominations, such as for organ, piano, general piano, string instruments, wind instruments, percussion instruments, folk instruments and instrumental ensembles. I participated in this competition twice. The first one, in December 2020, was dedicated to the 180th anniversary of the birth of Tchaikovsky. I presented a recording of John Corigliano’s piece called Winging It (1st and 3rd movements) and won the Grand Prix. The second time, in May 2021, my submission was Ravel’s Alborada del gracioso (from Miroirs) and I was awarded the first prize. This time the competition was called “El Gran Astor”, for the 100th anniversary of the birth of Astor Piazzolla. http://www.astana-stars.com/astana-vision-contest-10-04-2021-en/
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The Conservatory is extremely proud of Martyna’s accomplishments during this trying time and salutes both her perseverance and the fine work of Prof. Alekna to feed her voracious musical appetite in achieving these successes on the international stage. We’re confident that Martyna will continue to thrive beyond her studies and establish herself as a prominent artist, given her discipline and capabilities.
