Vladimir Propp

Vladimir Tropp, born in Moscow, began his studies at an early age at the Gnessin Music School of Moscow. He was soon awarded various scholarships, including the prestigious Rimsky-Korsakov Fellowship, and completed his studies with honors in record time. Since that time he has acquired a reputation as both an outstanding soloist and a teacher. He had participated in competitions, winning many prizes including the Enesco Competition at Bucharest. Many of his students won prestigious prizes at international competitions. Currently, as soloist and master class teacher, he travels all over the world; Europe, America and Asia. He endeavours to perpetuate the Russian school of pianism, with considerable success. His specialty is Russian music, especially that of Scriabin, Medtner and Rachmaninoff.At the invitations of the Conservatory of Amsterdam and Epta Holland, Vladimir Tropp has been to Amsterdam, The Hague and Groningen. In Amsterdam, he gave a very successful recital with compositions of Tschaikovsky. In the Concertgebouw, he performed together with Ilya Grubert and made recordings of Shostakovich compositions for Channel Classics. Vladimir Tropp also made recordings for the Japanese label Denon, including Rachmaninoff, Chopin and Tschaikovsky’s "The seasons". His recording of Scriabin's Preludes opus 11 and Medtner's Second Improvisation are quite famous. His CD "Russian Melancholy" with pieces from Glinka, Borodin, Moussorgsky, Rubinstein, Rebikov and Kalinnikov is very interesting. Vladimir Tropp is often requested to be a member of the jury in International Piano Competitions.He is one of the most well-known professors at the famous Gnessin Academy of Music and the Conservatory in Moscow.
PROPP’S THEORY –Vladimir Propp’s theory was formed in the early twentieth Century. He studies Russian fairytales and discovered that in stories there were always 8 types of characters evident. These are: the hero, the villain, the donor, the dispatcher, the false hero, the helper, the princess and her father. He did not state these characters were all separate people e.g. the provider could also be the helper. There are only 8 different character types and only 31 things they ever do. Once you have identified the character type (e.g., the hero) it’s easy to guess what they will do (save the maiden, defeat the villain, marry the maiden or whatever) because each character has a SPHERE OF ACTION. This is easily relatable to films and programmes today.