Our Founding Artist, Lukas GeniuÅ¡as, presents a sublime performance recently in Genoa. We appreciate Lukas’ continuing support of Looking at the Stars Foundation.
We are unique. We gift Classical Music to those who need it most and expect it least. We are not pursuing photo opportunities. We are committed to bring dignity and hope to our audiences on a regular basis. Since 2015 we have gifted 49 classical music concerts to almost 3,500 inmates of federal correctional institutions & 1500 residents of long term care institutions in Canada. Our performers include internationally acclaimed musicians such as virtuoso violinist Maestro Gidon Kremer, pianist Lukas Geniušas, Chamber Soloists of The Toronto Symphony Orchestra, violinists Jonathan Crow, Barry Shiffman, cellist Joseph Johnson and others.
If you love classical music and are compassionate, this unusual video presentation may inspire you.
Dmitri Kanovich, Chairman, Founder and CEO
Looking at the Stars Foundation
Bravo to our Founding Artist, Lukas GeniuÅ¡as , for his live stream performance at the 16th International Music Festival “Chopin and his Europe,” on the same stage in Warsaw, Poland, where he won Silver ten years ago in the Chopin International Competition. Looking at the Stars is humbled and honoured by Lukas’ continuing commitment to the Foundation’s mission.
We are pleased to promote the release of our Founding Artist, Lukas Geniušas. This new collection of Chopin performances is an important milestone for this extraordinary pianist.
Available now on Apple Music, iTunes and Spotify.
Chopin: Mazurkas & Sonate No. 3
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (VSO) published a press release about their support of Maestro Gidon Kremer’s performance at Pacific Institution Regional Treatment Centre in Abbostford, BC; Looking At The Stars first musical gift of 2020.
In their press release they provide this enthusiastic quote from Maestro Kremer himself:
“I am honored to support Looking at the Stars and its wonderful and important work with my performance at Pacific Institution Regional Treatment Centre. By performing works by Bach and Weinberg in the circumstances and surroundings of a prison, I will do my small part to bring humanity and art into the inmates’ everyday life. I am sure it will be a unique and special performance for me and hopefully an inspiring event for the audience,” said violinist, Gidon Kremer.
We are compelled to share this commentary from BeLinda Roscoe, Recipient of the Governor General’s Silver Academic Medal, B.A., B.N., R.N. A and Executive Director, Regional Treatment Centre Ontario
Thank you again for providing this wonderful gift of presence and music for our patients. While RTC may be the most challenging venue in which you have played I hope you found it welcoming and receptive to your gifts. We were very touched by a number of events.
One of the patients has never been known to smile and rarely talks to anyone. This man could not keep smiling with a large grin the majority of the production and he was apparently talking to the staff member beside him often. I am hopeful it was not too disruptive.
The patients appreciated the beautiful cards they were given and I am sure as you could tell by their response for many it had tremendous impact leaving them with a positive memory of the event. The words of encouragement reinforced by a painting will provide most with a long time of continued reflection. You have left behind thoughts, feelings and a sense of belonging for many patients. The pride they had in creating crafts for Andrea had a tremendous impact on them and changes a man I am sure.
Thank you again for this gift to the patients as well as the staff.
BeLinda Roscoe, Recipient of the Governor General’s Silver Academic Medal, B.A., B.N., R.N. A
Executive Director, Regional Treatment Centre Ontario
We’re delighted to share this exceptional review by one of the most challenging Quebec critics about Lukas’s performance there last week.
https://www.ledevoir.com/culture/musique/560466/lukas-geniusas-pianiste-d-exception
English translation below:
The amazing recital of Lukas GeniuÅ¡as at Pro Musica in December 2016 did not hold momentary grace. The 29-year-old Russian-Lithuanian pianist confirmed on Saturday in Orford that he is one of the few great keyboard lords. GeniuÅ¡as is not an “excellent young pianist anymore”. He is a very talented artist, walking in the footsteps of keyboard alchemists named Arcadi Volodos or Sergei Babayan. We must bless what our era offers us. If we look back four decades, we certainly had huge pianists, like Arrau, Serkin, Guilels at the end of their career or Brendel and Moravec at the top of their art, but in the category of the magicians of sound, whose art and palette defied the understanding, alone, or almost, a young Romanian, Radu Lupu, appeared really singular. Perahia too maybe, but not at this level …
Today, the “unusual” side of Lukas GeniuÅ¡as, particularly in relation to his age, is not a unique case. In the younger generation, Benjamin Grosvenor, Pavel Kolesnikov, Lucas Debargue and even Charles Richard-Hamelin, with whom GeniuÅ¡as shares the destiny of having finished 2nd at a Chopin Competition (in 2010), is a much more interesting artist. as the laureate (Avdeeva in the case of Lithuanian).
An incredible sound palette
A recital by Lukas GeniuÅ¡as is sound in the service of musical expression. It is, from this point of view, the antithesis of Olga Kern, who appeared in this room a few weeks ago, since the touch palette of GeniuÅ¡as is infinite. While often very detailed pianists compensate for a lack of sound weight, GeniuÅ¡as has an amazing density in the forte and the left hand. Note that the sound emission never gives the impression of verticality or “typing.”
In this game, everything is organically linked because nourished by a supreme art of phrasing and transitions. The miracle of Chopin’s 3rd Sonata, touched by a breath, is there. Who heard this sonata by GeniuÅ¡as (in particular a 2nd fluid movement where the pianist seems to float on the keyboard), Richard-Hamelin and on the CD of Alexeï Volodin has probably made the tour of what was made more thought , more concentrated and more poetic in the last 20 or 30 years.
Everyone understood from Scarlatti Sonatas K. 544 and 450 that this artist was unconventional, in his manner of touching the piano and hemming phrases. In the second part, GeniuÅ¡as explored Tchaikovsky’s folklorism and the “human-faced minimalism” of Leonid Desyatnikov (born in 1955), a Ukrainian composer of his friends. Desyatnikov’s music explores atmospheres (No. 1), Ukrainian rhythms (No. 4 and No. 12), memories of French music (No. 15 and left-hand ones in No. 17) through sometimes simplistic cells (Prelude No. 11). ‘to the trepidation of Prelude No. 23 placed at the end of the selection.
Orford Music Festival, Saturday, August 10, 2019
Recital by Lukas Geniušas
Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonatas K. 544 and 450
Chopin: Piano Sonata No. 3
Tchaikovsky: Dumka
Desyatnikov: 12 Preludes, excerpts from 24 Preludes “Songs of Bukovina”
Looking at the Stars is pleased to present our first fundraising concert of the year, in the historic Grace Church on-the-Hill in Forest Hill, Toronto. Since our founding in 2015, we have provided 19 gifts of live classical music to Canadian federal prisons and 11 concerts to hospitals or long-term care facilities. These events are supported exclusively by patrons and private donations from caring individuals like you who recognize the power of live classical music to heal and inspire. Please consider purchasing concert tickets with optional donation to allow us to continue providing these important musical gifts to those who need them most. Donations of $100.00 or more qualify you as a VIP attendee to enjoy a post-concert meet & greet with the Performing Artists and Looking at the Stars Executive.
As part of this evening’s experience, our Artist In Residence, Mr. S Gordon Harwood, will create a new painting inspired by the evening during the performances, which will be auctioned to the highest bidder. Mr. Harwood has created numerous paintings during concert events in several prison institutions, which were then donated to their respective Inmate Committees.
