By Lyn Bronson
Last night at All Saints Church in Carmel, Russian pianist Halida Dinova performed a piano recital for a small audience of approximately fifty people. That the audience was so small is probably because Ms. Dinova is not one of the older prestigious, top-ranked concert artists of the stature of Murray Perahia and Martha Argerich, but rather a young emerging artist in her thirties whose reputation is growing larger each year. Ms. Dinova already has some interesting CDs to her credit: Brahms Concerto No. 2 and Ernest Bloch’s Scherzo Fantasque (both recorded with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic), Dennis Eberhard’s Piano Concerto “Shadow of the Swan†( a memorial to the victims of the Russian submarine “Kursk†disaster and recorded with the St. Petersburg Cappella Symphony), a highly regarded recording of Scriabin’s piano music and most recently a CD called Masterpieces for Children featuring works by Bach, Debussy, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky — the proceeds of which benefit orphanages in Russia.
Noticeably missing from the audience last night were the community’s young piano students (and there are hundreds of them on the Monterey Peninsula and in Salinas). However, for a family of two adults and two children, the admission price of $25 for adults and $10 for students adds up to an expenditure of $70. Although quite reasonable for older more affluent families, this represents a major expense for younger families. Also missing from last night’s audience were the 50 or so piano teachers, but this was actually not surprising, since they rarely attend concerts locally. Incidentally, several months ago a young pianist of similar stature, Gustavo Romero, appeared in this same venue, but in a free concert, and the church was packed. Thus, concert presenters have to face the reality that people will come willingly when the concert is free, but may ignore the event if they have to pay for the event.
