Ukrainian Pianist Romanenko Delights at Impromptu Recital

By Eileen Wingard

SOLANA BEACH, California — Pianist Iegor Romanenko from Kharkiv, Ukraine, sat down to give an impromptu recital last Sunday afternoon at the home of Solana Salons’ hostess, Monique Kunewalder. Although arranged just days before, Romanenko’s performance drew fifty guests to listen to this talented refugee musician.

The first part of the program included works by Bach, Chopin, Massenet, Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky. His musicality and skill were particularly evident in Rachmaninoff’s Elegie, Op. 3 No 1, and in Tchaikovsky’s Pas De Deux from The Nutcracker. He also played the French composer, Jules Massenet’s Meditation from Thais with beautifully shaped phrasing. Only his opening Busoni adaption of the Chaconne from the Partita #2 for solo Violin sounded heavy-handed. When the piano lid was lowered, at the suggestion of the hostess, the Chopin works that followed had more appropriate dynamic dimensions.

The boyish-looking 31-year old pianist is not only a gifted performer, having graduated from the B.M Lyatoshynsky Music School of Kharkiv and the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, but he is an award-winning composer of scores for films, directed by his uncle, Konstantin Fam: Shoes, Violin, Brutus, Witnesses and Kaddish.

The second part of the program consisted of Romanenko’s original works. It opened with a piece he recently composed as a tribute to the Ukrainian people, a set of variations on the Ukrainian song, Chervona Kalina, titled Ukrainian Cover.

The Suite from Kaddish was the final offering on Romanenko’s program, and it included Brutus Lullaby in Yiddish, sung by his uncle, Konstantin Fam, who possesses a beautiful singing voice.

The well-crafted, idiomatic music attested to why Romanenko’s score for Shoes won the 2013 Angel Award for Best Original Music at the Monaco International Film Festival and, in 2019, Kaddish won for Best Music at the Sochi (Russia) International Film Festival, the 17 Moments International Film Festival (Russia) and was long listed for the Golden Globe and American Film Academy Awards.

Although he did not display all his versatility at this program– Romanenko also plays jazz– he did showcase his formidable talents as a piano soloist and as a composer. He was also the founder and conductor of a Childrens Orchestra, Musikepoche, in Moscow.

Hopefully, this talented young musician can find suitable outlets for his abilities in Southern California, where he currently is residing with his uncle’s family as he anxiously hears news from his parents who remain in war-ravaged Ukraine.

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Eileen Wingard, a retired violinist with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, is a freelance writer based in San Diego. She may be contacted via eileen.wingard@sdjewishworld.com