The stages of formation and development of the piano accompanist school are inextricably linked with the development of Belarusian professional music education as a whole.
In the first years of the conservatory’s existence, teachers of the piano specialty, as well as student pianists and composers, whose professional level could not satisfy the heads of vocal, instrumental and conducting classes, worked as piano accompanists. In the post-war years, leading pianist teachers began optionally teaching artistic accompaniment to students in the Piano Department. Professor Georgy Petrov taught pianists to work with singers and instrumentalists, instilling in them the skills of playing under the baton, which are so necessary in working with students of the choral and conducting departments. For some time, the chief accompanist of the Bolshoi Theater of the BSSR, People’s Artist of the BSSR Semyon Tolkachev, worked at the Belarusian State Conservatory, who played a significant role in the development of the accompanist class. Under his leadership, student pianists mastered the skills of performing opera claviers and mastered methods of working with vocalists on opera parts.
The Belarusian accompanist school dates back to the mid-50s of the twentieth century, when Edi Tyrmand (1917–2008) began teaching the piano accompanist class. An outstanding teacher and composer, a person of great erudition, a talented musician, she created a system for educating an accompanist based on the ability to correctly read the author’s text, penetrate into the artistic intent of the work, and have an accurate knowledge of performance goals and objectives. It is interesting that during the years of teaching (from 1954 to 1990) and subsequent ones, having enormous teaching experience, she did not write a single methodological work from which the essence of her teaching activity could be extracted and theorized. The legacy of E.Tyrmand is the only educational and methodological development “The work of an accompanist in an accompanist class” (1976, co-authored with E.Volodko). And now her grateful students, recalling the unforgettable lessons that were held creatively, thoroughly, purposefully to obtain the desired result, in their methodological works were able to reveal and comprehend the basic principles of her teaching activities.
In the early 1960s, piano accompanist class became mandatory for all pianists. At the Chamber Ensemble Department, which at that time was headed by Stepan Sizko, a section of the piano accompanist class was formed. Since 1966, the qualification “piano accompanist” began to be awarded to graduate pianists after they passed the state exam in the discipline “piano accompanist class”. The need to prepare pianists for practical piano accompanist activity raised the question of transforming the accompanist class section into the Piano Accompanist Mastery Department before the leadership of Belarusian State Conservatory. This reorganization made it possible to significantly expand the forms and methods in the piano accompanist class and diversify the types of piano accompanist practice of students. The basis of the Department was made up of outstanding specialists in the field of piano accompanist skills: Associate Professors E.Tyrmand and E.Volodko, teachers were involved in the work, who later created their own accompanist classes Serafima Belkevich, students of E.Tyrmand – Lyudmila Andreeva, Svetlana Oskina and Sofia Okolova. In 1969, the new Department was headed by the leading Professor of the Conservatory, one of the founders of the Belarusian piano school, Honored Artist of Belarus Mikhail Berger.
Over the years, the best piano accompanists of the country taught at the Department: Elena Vasilchenko, Honored Artist of Belarus Larisa Maksimova, diploma winners of international competitions Nikolai Serdobov, Nina Kavetskaya, Irina Borkun, Sergey Bogachev, Alexey Sidorov, etc. Associate Professor Serafima Belkevich made a special contribution to the development of the Department, who taught at the department from 1961 to October 2017. High erudition in all spheres of art, enormous creative potential, extensive piano accompanist experience in ensemble performance with outstanding Belarusian singers and instrumentalists allowed her to practically and theoretically comprehend all the nuances of the accompanist profession. The result of this was the unique teaching aids in the field of performing arts: “Lessons in Piano Accompanist Mastery (Typical Mistakes of Beginning Piano Accompanists)” (2001), “Teaching the Art of Piano Accompaniment” (2007), etc.
From 1978 to 1983, the Department of Piano Accompanist Mastery was headed by the magnificent ensemble pianist, Yuri Gildyuk, who still performs on the main stages of the country. Since 1983, for 20 years, the Department was headed by Sofia Okolova, who made a significant contribution to the organization of educational, creative and educational work of the Department. Her traditions from 2003 to 2020 were also continued by the student of E.Tyrmand Tatyana Dubrovskaya. Since 2020, the Department has been headed by Associate Professor Olga Beltyukova. Over the past twenty years, a stable teaching team of like-minded people has been formed at the Department of Piano Accompanist Mastery, carefully preserving and developing the pedagogical, creative and ethical principles of their predecessors. Today, the Department teachers are: Professor Anna Tomashevich-Korzhenevskaya, Associate Professors Elena Alekseeva, Tatyana Belyakova, PhD of Art History, Associate Professor Tatyana Kim, Senior teachers Ekaterina Butko, Natalia Korotina, Olga Makeeva, Tatiana Panasyuk, Ekaterina Rakut , Olga Smolyakova, Svetlana Stefanenko Khodko, Elena Chekir, teacher Ivan Andrukhov. All teachers have extensive professional experience as piano accompanists, many of them continue active performing activities.
The teaching staff is constantly developing the methodology of their work: programs, teaching aids, educational and methodological complexes are published. A significant event in the educational process was the discipline “Sight reading and transposition” assigned to the Department in the 2013 curriculum. The program for this discipline, developed by T.Belyakova, allows students to make progress in mastering the skills of this important component of practical piano accompanist work.
Over the past two decades, the educational and methodological activities of the Department’s teachers have significantly intensified. This is confirmed by published textbooks, developments, articles by leading teachers of the Department: “Lessons in piano accompanist mastery (typical mistakes of beginning accompanists)” (2001) and “Teaching the art of accompaniment” by S.Belkevich (2007), “In the piano accompanist class of E.M. Tyrmand (Memories)” S.B. Okolova (2005), “On the emotional meaning of musical terminology and its significance for performing interpretation” L.P. Andreeva (2006), “Methodological principles of E.Tyrmand in the piano accompanist class” O.Beltyukova (2013), “Accompanist art. Theory and practice. 100th anniversary of E.Tyrmand is dedicated to A.Korzhenevskaya (2017), a collection of articles by teachers of the Department of Piano Accompanist Mastery “History, theory and practice of piano accompanist art. To the 100th anniversary of the birth of E.Tyrmand” (2017, compiled by S.Okolova). The appearance of this kind of methodological literature is important and necessary not only for teachers leading the piano accompanist class, but also for piano accompanists who can find recommendations for performing vocal and instrumental accompaniments. The editorial and publishing department of the Belarusian State Academy of Music prepared and published the collections “Belarusian vocal music of the 17th–18th centuries. Baroque” (2006), “Belarusian vocal music of the 18th–19th centuries. Classicism. Romanticism” (2015–2016) (author-compiler and music editor – A.Korzhenevskaya), “Six romances based on the poems of S. Yesenin” by A.Bogatyrev (2013) (music editor – S.Belkevich). The publication of these works made it possible to significantly expand the educational repertoire performed by students and open new pages of vocal literature.
The repertoire studied in the piano accompanist class includes works of vocal and instrumental literature from the Baroque era to the present day, famous and rarely performed works by Russian, Soviet, and foreign classics. Systematic work is also being carried out to expand and deepen the repertoire and promote new compositions. The Department’s teachers pay great attention to students studying and performing works by Belarusian composers. Significant merit in popularizing the vocal works of A. Radzivil, J. Holland, S. Moniuszko, K. Gorsky belongs to A.B. Korzhenevskaya, who is the compiler and editor of such collections as “Kanstancin Gorski. “Vakalnye tvory”” (2008), “Anton Genryk Radzivil. “Ramans” (2013), “Jan David Holand. “Pataemnae”, “Stanislav Manyushka. “Lirnik Vyaskovy” (2013), etc. In the programs of state exams and concerts of the Department you can hear arias and romances by A. Bogatyrev, V. Olovnikov, P. Podkovyrov, E. Tyrmand, D. Smolsky, G. Gorelova, A. Mdivani , S. Cortes, instrumental works by G. Wagner, V. Voitik, V. Kuznetsov, S. Beltyukov. Not long ago, the educational repertoire was replenished with a collection of chamber and vocal works by L. Abeliovich, published by the Academy of Music (2015).
The effectiveness of the educational process is supported by active and varied concert work at the Department. Such activities made it possible to create a separate series of concerts, “Piano Accompanist Mastery.” The program of the cycle includes concerts by students of the Department, young teachers, classes of teachers, as well as for anniversaries of composers.
Soloists-illustrators make a great contribution to the educational and creative work of the Department, many of whom combine this activity with work at the National Academic Bolshoi Theater, the Belarusian State Academic Musical Theater, and the Belarusian State Philharmonic Society. For many years, People’s Artists of Belarus L. Zlatova (soprano), L. Kasporskaya (soprano), Honored Artists of the Republic of Belarus T. Pechinskaya (mezzo-soprano), V. Skorobogatov (baritone), T. Kuchinskaya (soprano) collaborated with the Department. , laureates of international competitions A. Galkin (bass), N. Berezina (soprano), V. Borovikov (bass), I. Rusinovskaya (soprano), L. Kuzmitskaya (soprano), D. Morozov (bass), M. Likhosherst ( soprano), T. Petrova (soprano), T. Tsybulskaya (soprano), Y. Nelepa (tenor), N. Akinina (mezzo-soprano), Y. Gershovich (violin), P. Naumenko (clarinet), E. Feshchenko (cello), S. Belozertsev (violin), T. Shumakova (cymbals), etc.
The best traditions of the Department are successfully continued by its graduates. Most of them work as accompanists in theaters, concert and music schools, often combining practical activities with teaching. Each generation of graduates of the Department is represented by a large number of diploma winners at international and republican competitions who have demonstrated high piano accompanist art in performances with vocalists and instrumentalists, and creative groups. Over time, the geography of practical activities of students of the Department of Piano Accompanist Mastery began to expand. At the moment, it covers the countries of Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, where graduates of the department work as leading piano accompanists in theaters, concerts and educational institutions.
Today, the teaching staff of the Department of Piano Accompanist Mastery. Preserving the traditions of the Belarusian accompanist school, directs its activities to improve the quality of the educational process, to create the necessary creative and organizational conditions for the education of full-fledged professional piano accompanist.
