Stephen & Anastasiya Squires - Aram Khachaturian Flute Concerto
ABOUT
Anastasiya Squires (Anastasiya Ganzenko/Vityk) was born on May 24, 1993, in the extraordinary historical city of Lviv (Ukraine) in the family of Zinovii Vityk, an engineer, and Maria Vityk, a confectioner. Harmony, love, and family traditions a bounded in the family. The table was always full of Mom’s freshly-baked cookies.
Anastasiya inherited her musical abilities from her father, who played the guitar when he was young. But when he got married he gave up the guitar. In the family, besides the youngest Anastasiya, there were two elder children. Brother Roman is a doctor, and sister Uliana is an attorney. All the children in the family learned to read very quickly and have received academic honors. At a very young age, Anastasiya, who still did not know how to read, was already well able to play the sopilka (native Ukrainian wood flute). Before the age of 4, her mother brought her to the Lviv Music School No3 for her sopilka lessons. From the first touch of the instrument, an extremely beautiful sound emerged. Anastasiya did not like the instrument itself, but she immediately fell in love with music. She played various tunes, folk songs, kolomyjka (Ukrainian folk dance songs) quickly from memory. It was incredible! A tiny girl with golden hair, a 4-year-old soloist impressed all the listeners with her first performance on the stage. Together with her 8-year-old sister who played the piano, they were a duet making fireworks on the stage. It was a little 4-year-old virtuoso! She had been playing sopilka for only one year and switched to flute the moment she heard and saw one. The flute was shining and producing such a beautiful and bright sound that Anastasiya said that it did not play, but it sang. Having fallen in love with the flute, Anastasiya refused to touch the sopilka anymore, but unfortunately, she was still too young to play the flute. However, the persistent character of the young soloist won!
She quickly mastered the instrument. Already at the age of 6 she enrolled in the school for music-gifted children named after Solomiya Krushelnytska to the class of Olena Pavlenko, Candidate of Art Studies, Senior Professor of the Department of Woodwind and Percussion Instruments of the Lviv National Music Academy named after M.V. Lysenko. She liked to go to school very much. Anastasiya liked to study, but most of all she liked to play the flute. She could practice until late at night. There was no need to force Anastasiya to practice, on the contrary, it was impossible to remove her from playing the flute and the piano. She practiced for 6-8 hours a day and on weekends even 10 hours.
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“I believe she can contribute greatly to the flute world by offeri ng a fresh perspective through her brilliant interpretations of the standard repertoire as well as a new virtuoso approach to the more modern repertoire. She is young, very very talented and has the love and ambition to bring flute standards to an even higher level .”
– Eugenia Moliner International Flute Artist
YesSuits-
“Her achievements thus far indicate a performer whose presence in American musical life will electrify and galvanize the concert - going public, and it is my opinion that this country should embrace her as an important contributor to the cultural life of the American classical music scene .”
– Adam Neiman Founder and CEO of Aeolian Classics, LLC
MashIt -
“She has mastered the most difficult of the repertory for our instrument, and demonstrated her abilities in performances of great artistry and verve. Anastasiya plays with the ease and perfection, refined beauty of the best of the great flutists of our time.”
– Richard Graef CCPA Artist Faculty Member and Assistant Principal Flute for Chicago Symphony
FabuFit -
“I believe she can contribute greatly to the flute world by offeri ng a fresh perspective through her brilliant interpretations of the standard repertoire as well as a new virtuoso approach to the more modern repertoire. She is young, very very talented and has the love and ambition to bring flute standards to an even higher level .”
– Eugenia Moliner International Flute Artist
YesSuits -
“Her achievements thus far indicate a performer whose presence in American musical life will electrify and galvanize the concert - going public, and it is my opinion that this country should embrace her as an important contributor to the cultural life of the American classical music scene .”
– Adam Neiman Founder and CEO of Aeolian Classics, LLC
MashIt
