Scarborough pianist is youngest at gala concert
Young Stars of the Young Century April 26
Scarborough born and raised Anastasia Rizikov will perform in an international gala concert in Toronto on April 26 called Young Stars of the Young Century.
And the Toronto District School Board Grade 4 student will have the distinction of being the youngest solo performer who will take the stage - at just nine years of age (she turns 10 in December).
The young piano playing prodigy has won more than 20 music competitions, ranging from the 2007 Kiwanis Provincial Music Festival to the Vladimir Horowitz International Young Pianists Competition in Kiev, Ukraine, in 2006.
That honour earned her the thrill of performing with the Kiev Philharmonic Orchestra at the accompanying gala concert.
Her piano prowess has led to an increasing number of her own concert bookings, which is always a good thing when you have to pay for the lessons and extensive travel (such as to Kiev) that go hand in hand with being an elite youth performer.
For instance, she has arranged a trip in May to represent Canada at the International Festival Moskow Meets Friends, organized By Vladimir Spivakov's International Charity Foundation.
It will mark just four years since she gave her first public performance, a half-hour recital, as a five-year-old at her St. Anne's Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Scarborough.
At that time she was already at the Grade 5 level, having started to play at four years of age. She is now at the Grade 10 level.
"She wanted to study and she wanted to move fast," said her mother Liana Rizikov.
The Scarborough youngster practices upward of three or four hours per day, under the near daily tutelage of her piano teacher Maia Spis who currently teaches with the Nadia Music School in Toronto.
In a piano-less interview room at The Scarborough Mirror, there are only small clues as to her talent on the ivories.
Ask about her favourite book and she says: "Owls in the Family (by Farley Mowat) is kind of interesting but I haven't read it all ... Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was a really, really interesting book, funny, and I think I'd read it a lot more times."
Ask about her report card, which Toronto District School Board schools issued earlier this month, and the young Scarborough student giggles that, despite missing some school due to piano commitments, "I have good marks ... no C's - As and Bs."
Clues of her special talent to start emerge when she lists her favourite movie as The Pianist. It's a very sad movie (about the Holocaust), she agrees, "but I still like it especially because of the pianist."
And the clues of her piano propensity are unmistakable when you talk music.
She lists her favourite performer as Artur Rubinstein, a Polish-American pianist widely considered as one of the greatest piano virtuosos of the 20th century.
As for her favourite composition, she related that "I finally started Fantaisie Impromptu (Chopin), which is one of my favourites, and I also really like the Gershwin Preludes. They're really interesting."
The giveaway, of course, occurs when you ask her what she wants to be when she grows up.
"Yes, I want to be a very, very famous pianist," she said, again bursting into giggles.
All laughing aside, through hard work and sheer talent, she's definitely making her dreams and goals come true.
The fourth annual Young Stars of the Young Century concert, just as its name suggests, is designed to gather some young stars of the young century at North York's George Weston Recital Hall
It brings together some of the most talented youth from east European countries - all winners of various national and international competitions and chosen by the Vladimir Spivakov International Charity Foundation - along with Canada's brightest young talent, including Rizikov.
Besides individual performers, the Mississauga Youth Orchestra and the Scarborough-based Toronto Children's Concert Choir and Performing Arts Company will also be performing.
"I'm playing Chopin's Etude in C-minor ... and Lysenko's Impromptu," Anastasia said.
Incidentally for any young pianists reading this, Anastasia confirmed that the music for all of her performances has to be completely memorized.
