The Teacher and The Students

The performers give this continuity a personal dimension. For Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Shostakovich’s music is connected to his own family history: his father, Julian Sitkovetsky, was an early interpreter of the composer’s First Violin Concerto and his mother, Bella Davidovich, performed Shostakovich’s 2nd Piano Concerto in Moscow with the composer in the audience. Farhad Badalbeyli knew both Gara Garayev and Arif Melikov personally. Together with Boris Baraz and Nigar Jafarova they bring this history into the immediacy of live chamber performance.

At BIAF, this musical connection is not simply remembered — it comes alive again on stage, linking past, present and future, and above all continuing from teacher to student.