The Honored Artist of the Republic of Belarus
Irina Shumilina was born in Minsk (Belarus) in the family of musicians. She finished specialized music school and Belarusian State Conservatory (the class of Professor G.Shershevsky – a student of famous musicians of St. Petersburg school V. Sofronitsky and S. Savshinsky). Then she continued studying as a post-graduate at P. Tchaikovsky State Conservatory in Moscow ( the class of Professor L.Vlasenko). Being a student Irina Shumilina gave a great number of solo concerts. She took part in many festivals and won the National and International Music Competitions. She has been working as a soloist in the Belarusian State Philharmonic Society and has been engaged in an intensive concert activity since graduation time. The right understanding of music styles, high responsibility to her art and the free competence in all piano art resources are the peculiar features of the pianist. Her repertoire is amazingly wide and many-sided. But she is attracted mostly by monumental forms: sonatas, suites, fantasias, piano cycles, concerts by Russian and foreign authors. Her favorite composers are S. Rachmaninov, M. Mussorgsky, P. Tchaikovsky, S. Prokofiev, L. Beethoven I. Brahms, R. Schumann, F. Schubert, F. Chopin, F. Liszt.
The geography of the pianist's tours is wide. I. Shumilina has performed in many cities and towns of the former Soviet Union and abroad (India, Italy, Germany, Poland and others). She gave concerts with such well-known conductors as F. Mansurov (Moscow), A. Vedernikov (Moscow),V. Gergiev (St. Petersburg), N. Jarvi (Tallinn), J. Domarkas (Vilnius), V. Dubrovsky (Minsk, Smolensk), Katsuo Yamada (Japan), Pierre-Dominique Ponnelle (France, Germany), Wilhelm Keitel (Germany), Ingo Ernst Reihl (Germany) Yorg Ever (Germany), Charles Ansbacher (USA) and others.
I.Shumilina has a large fund of records of Russian, Belarusian and foreign music on National radio and television, and she regularly fills it up.
Last years I. Shumilina took part in the International festivals as "German – Belarusian Musical Autumn" (2000, Germany), "International Musical Festival n.a. Schumann" (2002, Germany), the Festival n.a. P. Tchaikovsky and N.F. von-Mekk (2005, Ukraine). From 2003 till 2005 she performed in different cities of Russia and Belarus with the solo concerts devoted to the 200th anniversary of M. Glinka. In 2006 she gave a series of commemorative concerts for the 250th anniversary of Mozart.
In 2007 Irina Shumilina was awarded with the distinguishing signs "For the contribution to the development of Belarusian Culture" and "For the contribution to the development of musical art." In 2010 I. Shumilina gave a series of concerts in different cities devoted to the 200th anniversary of F. Chopin. In spring 2010 she became a laureate of the International S. Talberg Prize (Naples, Italy, 2010).
I.Shumilina's remarkable achievements in art have always evoked a warm response and have been enthusiastically recognized by audience.
