It is the good fortune of Scriabinists that the outstanding pianist JAEDEN IZDIK-DURKO, Gold Medallist in the 2024 Leeds Competition, counts among his many interests the music of Scriabin. One video (in sound only) gives what appears to be a live cycle of all the sonatas; a video in sound and picture gives a superb Scriabin Tenth with Chopin  and Beethoven from an earlier competition. The combination of depth and lucidity, of timbre and phrasing, is breathtaking. Also clear to an unprecedented extent is the rise of the returned second subject, a great Hymn to the Sun, interspersed with the actual rays of the sun itself. Few pianists can maintain the line here as does Izdik-Dzurko; and the following ‘dance of insects’ in the falling dusk is miraculously light.  Certainly worth our attention in any context, but particularly exciting in Scriabin.

It is long overdue that we pay tribute to pianist, composer, musicologist, and Scriabinist Jonathan Powell, who passed away suddenly on December 27th last year. Powell studied with Denis Matthews and later with Sulamita Aronovsky, and his dissertation during his years as a student at the University of Cambridge explored the influence of Scriabin on Russian composers. He would later write the entry on Scriabin for the Grove Dictionary of Music. 

Stories abound around Powell—wild student days at Cambridge, sightreading the Scriabin Sonatas late at night at a party, getting full marks in the University’s famously difficult Aural exam—but what always comes across is the immense talent he possessed as both pianist and composer, as well as a generosity of spirit and passion for friendship. 

He dedicated his musical life to the lesser-known repertoire of Eastern Europe, as well as contemporary music. His pianism, ear, and sheer intensity in performance were second to none. He was one of only a small handful of pianists to perform the notoriously complex music of Kaikhosru Sorabji. He gave performances of the four-hour-long Opus Clavicumbalisticum and recorded the composer’s seven-hour Sequentia cylica.

He lived in Poland, in the Carpathian mountains with his wife, Irena, and their two sons; he will be greatly missed.

We are delighted to announce James Kreiling as our new co-chairman. Simon Nicholls is stepping back from the post of co-chairman but remains in close touch with the activities of the association. 

James Kreiling is a pianist, writer, teacher and transcriber based in the UK. His solo career has focused on music of the early 20^th-century, in particular the piano works of Scriabin. His doctoral thesis, completed at the Guildhall School of Music, focused on the interaction of research, analysis and performance practice in the interpretation of Scriabin’s late piano sonatas. He has published articles and book chapters relating to Scriabin performance and has recorded two discs encompassing the composer’s complete late piano music, which was released by Odradek in 2018 to great critical acclaim, including a five-star review in BBC Music Magazine.

​Determined to bring Scriabin’s often misunderstood work to a wider public, he has experimented with presenting music in unusual formats and locations, including concerts which mix classical piano with other performance arts—poetry, drama and dance, folk music and jazz.
​He lives with his wife Janneke Brits (also a pianist) and their two children in a 14^thcentury cottage in the south of England. From here they run immersive piano days for students and amateurs, inviting friends from the local community into their home for concerts.