Glad to see that Private Eye shares our view:
THE [sic] Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey is famous for educating children of advanced musical
talent; and for the past two years it has had an "associate composer" called Alexey Shor, described
by the school's music director, pianist Ashley Wass, as an artist of "exceptional craftsmanship"
whose involvement with the school was an "exciting opportunity".
Not everyone would agree. A Times reviewer in January 2020 described Shor as a "self-taught
composer" writing "would-be melodious 19th-century pastiches lacking all guts and spine". But
there's more to it than banal music, as pointed out in a recent investigation by online magazine VAN.
"Shor" was actually born Alexey Kononenko in the old Soviet Union and grew up not as a musician
but as a mathematician and eventual hedge-fund analyst who made a great deal of money - which
he has since used to pay for performances of works composed in his spare time.
In 2014 Shor obtained Maltese citizenship, a standard way for Russians to gain access to the EU,
and got involved with Konstantin Ishkhanov, an oil and gas baron who set up something called the
European Foundation for Support of Culture (EFSC), based in Malta. This funded a Malta
International Festival - to which western critics were shipped out expecting something Maltese, only
to find it run by Russians, featuring Russian or Armenian artists who played interminable amounts
of music by yes, er... Alexey Shor.
With bizarre quantities of money splashing around for such a niche classical music event, and half
the audience arriving in dark glasses and black limousines, it was, to say the least, er, an
atmospheric event. Just over two years ago the EFSC relocated to Dubai under the name Classical
Music Development Initiative, from where it now promotes music competitions with immense
prizes as well as performances of music by Shor and concert tours by pianist Wass.
It's all most... unusual. The Yehudi Menuhin School might do well to reconsider the "exciting
opportunity" of its ongoing connection.
(from Issue No.1635, 25 October-7 November 2024, in the "Music & Musicians" column on page 20...I wonder who writes that column?)
THE [sic] Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey is famous for educating children of advanced musical
talent; and for the past two years it has had an "associate composer" called Alexey Shor, described
by the school's music director, pianist Ashley Wass, as an artist of "exceptional craftsmanship"
whose involvement with the school was an "exciting opportunity".
Not everyone would agree. A Times reviewer in January 2020 described Shor as a "self-taught
composer" writing "would-be melodious 19th-century pastiches lacking all guts and spine". But
there's more to it than banal music, as pointed out in a recent investigation by online magazine VAN.
"Shor" was actually born Alexey Kononenko in the old Soviet Union and grew up not as a musician
but as a mathematician and eventual hedge-fund analyst who made a great deal of money - which
he has since used to pay for performances of works composed in his spare time.
In 2014 Shor obtained Maltese citizenship, a standard way for Russians to gain access to the EU,
and got involved with Konstantin Ishkhanov, an oil and gas baron who set up something called the
European Foundation for Support of Culture (EFSC), based in Malta. This funded a Malta
International Festival - to which western critics were shipped out expecting something Maltese, only
to find it run by Russians, featuring Russian or Armenian artists who played interminable amounts
of music by yes, er... Alexey Shor.
With bizarre quantities of money splashing around for such a niche classical music event, and half
the audience arriving in dark glasses and black limousines, it was, to say the least, er, an
atmospheric event. Just over two years ago the EFSC relocated to Dubai under the name Classical
Music Development Initiative, from where it now promotes music competitions with immense
prizes as well as performances of music by Shor and concert tours by pianist Wass.
It's all most... unusual. The Yehudi Menuhin School might do well to reconsider the "exciting
opportunity" of its ongoing connection.
(from Issue No.1635, 25 October-7 November 2024, in the "Music & Musicians" column on page 20...I wonder who writes that column?)
