Galina Vale: Great left hand work
By Miche Archetto:
Ukrainian guitarist Galina Vale shows here her virtuosity interpreting live Štěpán Rak’s composition entitled “Gora”.
The bio of Glaina Vale’s official website reads:
“Guitarist Galina Vale was born in the Ukraine and comes from a family of musicians.
She began studying the guitar and made her first public appearance on state television at the age of eight, from twelve she was performing major guitar concertos with the Kharkov Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra.
From the age of 15 she was employed as a principal guitarist with the Kharkov State Philharmonia and and started her career as a concert performer. Graduated from Moscow State Gnesins Music College and undertook a professional performance course at Royal Northern College of Music (Manchester, UK).
Galina has won prizes at international guitar and music competitions in Poland, Italy, Hungary, Spain, Thailand and the United Kingdom, and has performed over 2000 concerts across west and eastern Europe, USA, central America, Africa and Asia .
Her recitals include very technically demanding works, such as the arrangement by Japanese virtuoso guitarist Kazuhito Yamashita of “The Bogatyr Gate of Kiev” (from “Pictures at an Exhibition” by Mussorgsky), considered “impossible for guitar” (Goniezc Pomorsky) and Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsody no.2” alongside her own arrangements of works like Rachmaninov’s “Prelude no.5 in G-minor” and “Hungarian Dance no.5” by Brahms…
Her repertoire has ranged from ‘orthodox’ classical guitar (Sor, Mertz, Tarrega, Villa-Lobos), music from the renaissance and baroque (Galilei, Bach, Dowland, Scarlatti) through arrangements of classical instrumental,orchestral works and opera (Liszt, Paganini, Sarasate, de Falla, Gimenez, Bizet, Rossini…) the modern guitar (Walton, Dyens, Rak…), flamenco (Escudero, Sabicas, Paco de Lucia…), arrangements of South American and East European folk music (Cardoso, Ramirez, Tirao, Shevchenko…), to jazz and fusion genres.
Galina has starred in three music films produced by Ukrainian State Television:
“Portrait with guitar”
“Strings and Sails”
“Spirit of Spain”
and produced 5 CD albums:
“The Legend”
“Hungarian Rhapsody”
“The Great Gates of Kiev”
“Guitar Magic”
“Cruzando la Frontera”
Her first CD “The Legend” was released in 1996 (under her maiden name Galina Vernigora) with the support of Gendai Guitar Foundation of Japan and Masaru Kohno.
It featured on US FM radio in the network programme edition of “Great Women Guitarists” produced by ‘Classical Guitar Alive’ in 1997 and later with Maltese National Radio on the programme “Cantabile”.
Her recordings have featured on the BBC World Service and Ana Livia Radio (Rep. of Ireland). She has also appeared on TV in Ukraine, Russia, Spain, South Korea, Turkey, Portugal, Thailand, Mexico and South Korea . Since 1997 Galina lives in England and continues with her career as a concert performer .
Since moving to the U.K. she has performed at major festivals incl. Eurowirral International Guitar Festival, Ripon Music Festival, “Hola Mundo” and venues incl. Royal Festival Hall, Purcell Room, Kensington Roof Gardens, Cambridge University, Leighton House and Bridgewater Hall. Galina also worked with the Instituto Cervantes in Manchester and London under Director Salvador Estebanez Eraso performing Spanish guitar music as part of the promotion of Spanish language and culture at the Open University, British Council and other venues.
During 2006-2008, Galina performed concerts in Spain, Turkey, Portugal, Thailand, South Korea, Mexico and USA.“
Author: Robert Harris
