7:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 27
Hall Auditorium
Sponsored by Gil & Joyce Gordon and the Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet Studies
Media Partners: 88.5 WMUB, 91.7 WVXU

Curricular Connections price: $6 (regular Student price $9)

I Musici de Montréal performs Mussorgsky's masterful "Pictures at an Exhibition" with the award-winning film of choreographed paintings by Natasha Turovsky. The film was inspired by Mussorgsky's beloved piece and the story behind it -- paintings of Victor Hartmann were the original inspiration for Mussorgsky’s timeless music. The centerpiece of this towering program features the Mussorgsky classic in a production traveling with digital projections of the fifteen large-scale paintings by Natasha Turovosky -- including, The Promenade, Baba-Yaga, The Gates of Kiev and more. The film, co-created with digital animator Gael Hollard, is featured on-stage via large screen projection above the orchestra. Acclaimed artist Natasha Turovsky's work has been seen in solo exhibitions from Hong Kong and Barcelona to Cleveland, Boston and Montréal. Her work has been commissioned by diverse requests from record labels, chamber music ensembles and more. Among the major press generated by her remarkable paintings is a new BRAVO Documentary, "Pictures at a Concert", and honors for the choreographed paintings at several film festivals.

Watch the trailer for the film. Or watch the Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks. 

In 2007, the film won an Excellence in Cinema Award at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival. The film has just been selected for the 2010 Cannes Independent Film Festival in the Animated Short category. More...

"The big-screen projection is an uninterrupted suite of delight, with effects of movement, space and depth, always successfully achieved. The "Catacombes" are mind-boggling and a sky filled with bells dominates the "Great Gate of Kiev"... The arrangement for fifteen strings made by Turovsky recreates astonishingly well the atmosphere of each piece, including the little squeaks of the "Unhatched Chicks"."
La Presse, Montreal