An Aberdeenshire arts event was graced by a renowned Russian pianist travelling to Deeside to recite some of the world’s most challenging classical pieces.
The Deeside and Aboyne festival ended on Saturday night, with a crowd of almost 200 people gathering to listen to a performance from piano prodigy, Pavel Kolesnikov.
The 27-year-old has already been awarded a number of prestigious prizes in Russia, before moving to London to study at the Royal College of Music.
Mr Kolesnikov is a member of BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artists for 2014 to 2016 and paraded his talents this year with the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland at the Proms.
The event, held at Aboyne community theatre, was arranged by the Deeside Festival Committee. It runs annually for over two weeks, but was extended this year to allow Mr Kolesnikov to close the celebrations.
Committee member, Dave Ellis, said: “I think what made having Pavel here as part of the festival so special is that he really is such a talented musician.
“The pieces he performed were really quite remarkable. He is, in essence, just at the beginning of his career, but he performed pieces that you rarely see being performed live.
“The chance for people to simply see his hands playing were incredible, the performance was wonderful to both hear and see.”
Mr Kolesnikov performed pieces by Bach and Debussy.
And Mr Ellis added: “It was a marvellous spectacle. We had around 180 people attending and I believe all who did thoroughly enjoyed it.
“This was the closing event of the 2016 festival, which normally finishes in the first week of August, but we were more than happy to extend the festival to Saturday to allow Pavel to be part of the festivities.
“Locals were thrilled to have attended, with some saying: ‘we will say we were there, the night Pavel played in Aboyne’. So I think the festival has been a great success.”
Mr Kolesnikov will return to the north east on October, 27 for a concert at the Aberdeen Citadel.
Mr Ellis said: “Pavel said he had loved being here and was astonished at some of the Aberdeenshire scenery.
“He also commented on how appreciative the audience was on Saturday and he will now be coming back to Aberdeen next month.”
