2 AUGUST 2019

CATHARINA VAN RENNES - THE NETHERLANDS 
BORN 2 AUGUST

Catharina van Rennes was a Dutch music educator, soprano singer and composer.

Van Rennes was the daughter of Jan van Rennes and Marianna Josepha de Jong. Among her tutors were Richard Hol and Johan Messchaert. She made a career as a singer in oratorios and was highly praised for her interpretations of Schumann Lieder. She was also known for vocal compositions. She composed and conducted a cantata for The International Alliance meeting of the women's suffrage movement held in Amsterdam in 1909 which was performed by the Queen's Royal Band.

Van Rennes established her own singing school and developed her own teaching technique. Nowadays she is particularly known for some popular Dutch children's songs such as "Drie kleine kleutertjes die zaten op een hek" (Three little toddlers were sitting on a fence), a translation of a Kate Greenaway verse, and "Madonnakindje" (Madonna child) as well as a religious song Kind'ren van één vader" (Children of one Father).

♫ LISTEN

3 Quartette by Catharina van Rennes 

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MOYA HENDERSON - AUSTRALIA   
BORN 2 AUGUST   

Moya Henderson is one of Australia's most accomplished composers and instrument designers with a career spanning over four decades.

Moya graduated from the University of Queensland with first class honours in 1972, In 1973 she was appointed Resident Composer to the then Australian Opera during its inaugural season at the Sydney Opera House. She was awarded a DAAD Scholarship and a Travel Grant from the Music Board of the Australian Council for the Arts, which enabled her to continue her studies in music-theater and composition in Germany.

Between 1974 and 1976 Moya attended the Cologne Musikhochschule, in Germany - one of the world's most acclaimed music universities. There she studied music-theater with Mauricio Kagel and composition with Karlheinz Stockhausen, two of the most important and interesting composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. In 1974 she attended the Darmstadt Summer Courses for Composition and Performance. The short music-theater piece, Clearing the Air was written during the Darmstadt sessions, and on the strength of it, she was awarded the Kranichsteiner Prize for Composition at the course's end. The music-theater piece, Stubble, was a highlight of the 1976 Darmstadt Courses. Moya returned to Sydney, Australia in 1976.

She continues to work as a free-lance and commissioned composer ever since and has developed a broad and significant body of work.

In September 1983 Moya's work for organ and pre-recorded tape, Sacred Site, was given its first performance in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House by David Kinsela. This work was commissioned by the Sydney Opera House Trust to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the opening of the Sydney Opera House.

♫ LISTEN

I lost a world in the other  day by Moya Henderson

➺ Moya Henderson's website

13 JULY 2019

ALLA PAVLOVA - UKRAINE 
BORN 13 JULY

Alla Pavlova has written a number of compositions for orchestra, including ten symphonies and the ballet Sulamith (2003–2005), based on the 1908 story by Russian writer Alexandre Kuprin about the love of King Solomon for Sulamith, a servant from his vineyard. She is also the composer of numerous instrumental and vocal works that have been performed in the United States, Europe, Canada, Japan, India, Australia, and New Zealand. Ensembles that have performed and recorded her work include the Moscow Symphony, Tokyo Symphony, the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio, International Symphony Orchestra "Globalis", Melbourne Musicians Orchestra, the Moscow Philharmonic, West Virginia University Orchestra, the Lithuanian State Symphony, Kostroma Symphony, Russian Philharmonia, String Orchestra of the Rockies (University of Montana), Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, Toledo Symphony Orchestra, Richmond County Orchestra, Krasnoyarsk Philharmonic, North/South Consonance, and Duo Chamber Melange.

Soloists who have performed her music include violinists Sergei Krylov and Ivana Tomaskova, Michail Shestakov and Yaroslav Krasnikov, pianists Andrei Korobeinikov, Rostislav Krimer and Leonid Mararevich, saxophonists Aleksey Volkov and Michail Poroshin, trumpeter Georgy Pleskach, Bolshoi Theatre soprano Elena Zimenkova and mezzo Svetlana Belokon and flutists Leonid Lebedev and Nikolay Lotakov. Her works have been led by conductors that have included Vladimir Fedoseyev, Alexander Vedernikov, Konstantin Krimets, Vladimir Ziva, Rosen Milanov, Gintaras Rinkevicius, Vladimir Lande and Pavel Gershtein.

She has also worked with the Irish National Youth Ballet, which produced The Princess Iolanthe (2015), based on the same libretto as Tchaikovsky’s opera Iolanta, and has recently completed music for the ballet Thumbelina, based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale.

Her works combine classical, romantic and contemporary styles, and sometimes include elements from gospel and popular genres.

Since 1990 Alla has lived in New York and is a member of New York Women Composers, Inc.,, a member of IAWM (International Alliance for Women Composers), a Friend of Irish National Youth Ballet (www.inybco.com.com), a member of ASCAP. During the years 1995–2000 Alla worked as a piano instructor at 92 Y School of Music in NYC.

Recordings of her work are available on the Naxos and Albany labels. Her music is regularly broadcast internationally and can be heard on such outlets as the BBC, Houston Public Media, Spotify, iTunes, WWFM in Albany, NY, Marvin Rosen's Classical Discoveries on WPRB in Princeton, NJ and Composers Voice podcast.

♫ LISTEN

Elegy for piano and strings by Alla Pavlova 

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ANN CARR-BOYD - AUSTRALIA    

BORN 13 JULY

Ann Carr-Boyd is an internationally acclaimed Australian composer whose music is truly Australian, but embraces her close connection with European music through her family of professional musicians from Bohemia. Her musical style is often classed as ‘chameleon’ and is the outcome of this inheritance.

The European influence is evident in her music which is recognised for its romantic harmonies, adherence to classical form and Australian inspiration.

Her works have been performed at many landmark events, including:
- “The Bells of Sydney Harbour”, composed for the opening of the new Ron Sharp organ in the Sydney Opera House.
- “Images of Australia”, composed for the ABC television documentary marking the bicentenary of European settlement in Australia.
- The orchestral work “Look at the Stars”, performed by the Australian Youth Orchestra at the opening of the new Parliament House in Canberra.
- “Beneath the Yellow Moon” in the ABC Classic FM radio series “Images of our Times”

These landmark events, plus the constant presence of her music in radio broadcasts and concerts and the popularity of such works as Fandango for mandolins, have made her music well known and loved. For the last 20 years Ann’s piano, flute, cello and other instrumental music have been part of the Australian Music Examinations Board (AMEB) syllabus.

Her compositions cover a broad genre. In 2008, her 70th birthday celebrations reflected this in a series of concerts and compact discs produced throughout the year.

Grasstree hill by Ann Carr-Boyd  

➺ Ann Carr-Boyd's Website

28 MAY 2019

SARAH NEMTSOV - GERMANY

BORN 28 MAY

Sarah Nemtsov (née Reuter) was born in Oldenburg, Germany in 1980. She is the recipient of several prizes and scholarships, such as the German Music Authors Prize (Deutsche Musikautorenpreis GEMA) in 2012, the Busoni Composition Prize (Academy of the Arts Berlin) in 2013, 2016 she won the international RicordiLAB composition competition, in 2018 she was awarded the Oldenburg Composition Prize for Contemporary Music. She got fellowships from various foundations, such as the German National Merit Foundation, Aribert Reimann Foundation, Berlin Senate, or Foundation Zurueckgeben, as well as a residence at Villa Serpentara (Italy) in 2011. 2014/2015 Sarah Nemtsov was composer in residence for Philharmonic Orchestra Erfurt (GMD Joana Mallwitz) and her orchestra pieces were featured in three symphonic concerts. In 2014 she was teaching (composition/music theatre) at the Musikhochschule Cologne. In 2018 (spring semester) she was teaching composition as a DAAD guest lecturer at the University of Haifa, Israel.

Nemtsov’s music is played by renowned ensembles – such as Adapter, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, ensemble modern, ensemble recherche, ensemble mosaik, Ensemble InterContemporain, HR Symphony Orchestra, Basel Sinfonietta, Solistenstenensemble Kaleidoskop, Ensemblekollektiv Berlin, ensemble Lux:NM, Accroche Note, Trio accanto, Ensemble Garage, Ascolta, Vortex ensemble, PHACE, Sonar Quartet, Asasello Quartet, MIVOS Quartet, Nomos Quartet, SCENATET, Phace, Trio Arbós, Neopercusión, Black page orchestra, Oh-Ton-Ensemble, or the Finnish Baroque Orchestra. She has worked with conductors such as Joana Mallwitz, Baldur Brönnimann, Michael Wendeberg, Jonathan Stockhammer, Franck Ollu, Evan Christ, Manuel Nawri or Ilan Volkov.

Her compositions are featured in various international festivals – for example at the Donaueschingen Music Days (2011 and 2018), Darmstadt Summer Course (2014 and 2018), Munich biennale (2012), ICSM World New Music Festival, Musica in Strasbourg, ECLAT Stuttgart, Bregenzer Festspiele, Holland Festival, Festival Ultraschall, MaerzMusik and Klangwerkstatt in Berlin, SPOR or Klang (Denmark), Musica Nova (Finland), Wien modern, Acht Brücken Cologne, Israel Festival or Klangspuren Schwaz. Several of her works are being published at Peer Music Classical Hamburg and since 2016 at Ricordi Publishing house. Several of her compositions are released on CD, amongst others two portrait CDs („A LONG WAY AWAY“ 2012, Edition zeitgenössische Musik/Wergo and „amplified imagination“ 2018, Wergo).

In 2015 Sarah Nemtsov founded a gallery and concert venue in Berlin together with her husband Jascha Nemtsov – „Raum für Kunst und Diskurs“. Also she initiated (as artistic director and composer) the project „Mekomot“ 2015-2016 – a concert tour with contemporary music and old jewish liturgical chants through abandoned synagogues in Germany and Poland.

♫ LISTEN

Sacrifice by Sarah Nemtsov 

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CATHERINE LIKHUTA - AUSTRALIAN
BORN 28 MAY

Catherine Likhuta is an Australian-based composer, pianist and recording artist. Her music exhibits high emotional charge, programmatic nature and rhythmic complexity. Catherine's works have been played throughout the United States, Europe and Australia, as well as in Canada, Mexico and Brazil. Her music has enjoyed performances by many prominent soloists (such as Peter Luff, Andrew Pelletier, Denise Tryon, Adam Unsworth, Paul Dean, Griffin Campbell, Ronald Caravan and Trish O'Brien), chamber ensembles (such as PLEXUS, Atlantic Brass Quintet, Western Brass Quintet, Queensland Symphony Orchestra Horns, U.S. Army Field Band Horns, HD Duo and Collusion) and large ensembles (such as Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, The Australian Voices, University of Georgia Hodgson Singers, University of Georgia Hodgson Wind Ensemble, Queensland Conservatorium Wind Orchestra and Orchestra of the National Radio of Ukraine). Catherine’s pieces have been played at several international events, including four International Horn Symposiums and two World Saxophone Congresses. Her recent residencies include the University of Connecticut, the University of Georgia and North Carolina NewMusic Initiative. She was the winner of the International Horn Society Composition Contest (virtuoso division) and the recipient of several awards, including two grants from the Australia Council for the Arts. Her music can be heard on Cala, Albany and Equilibrium Records. 

Catherine holds a Bachelor's degree in jazz piano from Kyiv Glière Music College and a five-year post-graduate degree in composition from the Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine (Kyiv Conservatory). She is currently pursuing a PhD in composition at the University of Queensland. She has delivered presentations on her work at a number of institutions, including Arizona State University, Bowling Green State University, Butler University, Cornell University, Ithaca College, Queensland Conservatorium, Syracuse University and the Union of Composers of Ukraine. 

Catherine is an active performer, often playing her own music. She was the soloist on the premiere and the CD recording of Out Loud, her piano concerto commissioned by the Cornell University Wind Ensemble, and the pianist on Adam Unsworth’s CD Snapshots. Together with her collaborators, she has given numerous recitals, including ones at the 18th World Saxophone Congress (Zagreb, Croatia), 50th International Horn Symposium (Muncie, IN, USA), Eastman School of Music, Northwestern University and University of Michigan.

♫ LISTEN

Me Disagrees by Catherine Likhuta

➺ Catherine Likhuta's Website  

7 MAY 2019

ALISON BAULD - AUSTRALIA

BORN 7 MAY

Alison Bauld was born in 1944 in Sydney. A piano student of Alexander Sverjensky at the Conservatorium of NSW, she later studied acting at the National Institute of Dramatic Art, subsequently touring in Shakespearian productions for a year before completing a Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Sydney.

She came to England on a university scholarship in 1969 and after studying composition in her first two years in London with Elisabeth Lutyens and Hans Keller, she completed a doctorate in composition at the University of York in 1974.

Her music, almost all of a theatrical genre, has won international prizes and is regularly performed in concerts and broadcasts throughout Europe, the USA and Australia. "A theatrical background has shared centre stage with her musicianship in informing her writing style . . . Bauld has instilled her vocal music with a dramatic flare uncommon among other contemporary song writers." Joyce Andrews, Journal of Singing, USA, Vol. 60, No 1, 2003.

Music theatre compositions include an opera, Nell, commissioned and performed by Midsummer Opera at the Donmar Warehouse in 1987 and a multi-track broadcast for the BBC of a dramatic scena from Shakespeare's Richard III with the Arditti String Quartet and with the composer as narrator. This was later adapted as Farewell Already and recorded on NMC by Jane Manning with her Minstrels in 1995. Pluto, performed by the same ensemble, was a millenium commission by the Spitalfield's Festival for the vocal and instrumental forces of Holst's Planets and most recently, a song for soprano and piano, No More of Love, was written for inclusion in her novel, Mozart's Sister. An interest in music education led to a Novello commission to write a three volume piano tutor, Play Your Way, in which she explores the credo that mistakes can be used as a creative tool in musical development. 

Bauld has composed a brace of dramatic scenas with Shakespearian settings of which Banquo's Buried for soprano and piano and Where Should Othello Go for tenor/baritone and piano are her most performed. Recent settings for piano and voice include further texts from Macbeth, The Tempest, Anthony and Cleopatra, Henry VI Part 3 and Merchant of Venice, all of which were staged in a concert of her vocal music given by the Australian soprano, Helen Noonan in Melbourne, 2003.

♫ LISTEN 

Banquo's buried by Alison Bauld

➺ Alison Bauld's Website 

EDNA FRIDA PIETSCH - USA 
BORN 7 MAY

Edna Pietsch shared a birthday with Brahms and Tchaikovsky, a fact she reported with immense pride. Perhaps this was an omen that she would go on to become an accomplished composer herself. Pietsch was quite a character and possessed an unforgettable persona. She had strong opinions about many matters. Regarding music, she likened "modern music" to a garbage dump; if you were around it long enough, it stopped smelling.

Edna Pietsch was quite colorful and multi-talented. To cheer a friend's accomplishment or a relatives' milestone,she would compose personalized, creative, invariably silly, poems. Pietsch was quick to tell you what was on her mind and let you know where you stood with her. She lived her whole life in the same Milwaukee house in which she was born and delighted in that fact. Pietsch poured her heart and soul into her compositions. Likewise, she taught piano with a passion and was disappointed with students who did not share her passion, especially if the student was naturally gifted.

Pietsch loved to entertain and was quite exacting in her attempts to teach proper table manners to her somewhat reluctant neices and nephews. She did things with a flourish. Another one of her avocations was gardening. Pietsch associated the beauty of the garden with the beauty of music and flowers provided inspiration for some of her works.

♫ LISTEN 

Andante Cantabile for Viola and Piano by Edna Frida Prietsch 

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27 APRIL 2019

IRIS DE CAIROS-REGO - AUSTRALIA

Iris de Cairos-Rego was first and foremost a pianist and is described as having a formidable technique; being deft and expressive; playing with sparkling precision, and interpreting with charm, freshness and a delicacy of touch. Throughout her long life she developed the skills to become a prolific composer of piano and chamber music and an inspirational teacher.

Iris was one of the first teachers to be engaged at the newly formed Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 1915. In 1914 she joined the Salon Piano trio which gave regular concerts in Sydney. This trio had been formed originally with Mirrie Hill as the pianist and in 1914 Iris replaced Hill as the pianist. At that time the Salon Trio consisted of the players - Iris, Florence Brown (cellist) and Dorothy Curtis (violin). During 1914 Iris gave concerts with the singer, Antonia Dolores in New Zealand and Western Australia and in 1920 appeared as soloist in concertos by Schumann and Beethoven with the NSW State Orchestra and Henri Verbrugghen conducting. She also frequently appeared as associate artist with fellow musicians and teachers from the Conservatorium such as Cyril Monk (violin) and the Austral String Quartet. It has been said that Iris gave the first performance of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue in Australia.

In 1935, Winifred West invited Iris to join the community at Frensham School in the Southern Highlands. Winifred West was born in 1881 in Frensham, Surrey in England - the school, named for her birth village, in Mittagong became a testament to this woman’s remarkable ideas. West collected around her some of the most prominent musicians and artists from the NSW community to teach at her school. Iris was originally invited for a year and ended up spending the rest of her life in the community. Though, most of her compositions for piano, many songs and commemorative works were written during her time of teaching the girls at Frensham and many were dedicated to fellow teachers or students.

♫ LISTEN

Toccata The Train by Iris de Cairos-Rego

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HILDA SEHESTED - DENMARK
BORN 27 APRIL

Hilda Sehested was born in Funen, Denmark, of parents Niels Frederik Bernhard Sehested (1813–82), an archeologist, and Charlotte Christine Linde (1819–94). She studied music with C.F.E. Hornemann in Copenhagen and later with Louise Aglaé Massart in Paris. She studied organ with Ludvig Birkedal-Barfod and composition with Orla Rosenhoff, and began composing at the age of 30.

Hilda Sehested's compositions include all genres except the great orchestral music - concerts and symphonies. Piano pieces and those - not least for female composers - typical songs fill the production well. The chamber music is also richly represented. with works for unconventional herds such as clarinet, English horn, trumpet or cornet and trumpet with piano or strings.

Hilda's main work is the opera Agnete and Havmanden for text by Sophus Michaëlis, which she submitted to The Royal Copenhagen. Theater 1913. The opera was accepted, but never performed despite protests from professionals, and it has never been played. The opera first got its premier performance in October 2014, at the initiative of the Hilda Sehested Committee and The Funen Opera, which gave a concerted performance of the work in Odense Concert Hall and in the concert hall Alsion in Sønderborg.

Sehested's mother died in 1894, and she moved to Copenhagen to live with her sister Thyra. She became engaged to archaeologist and museum director Henry Petersen there, but he died before the wedding. Shocked by his death, Sehested took a job as a nurse for a while and then as a church organist, and eventually returned to composing. She died in Copenhagen.

♫ LISTEN

Morceau Symphonique by Hilda Sehested

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28 MARCH 2019

KATHARINE PARKER - AUSTRALIA

BORN 28 MARCH

Katharine Parker was an Australian composer, perhaps best known for her piano piece "Down Longford Way". She was also an accomplished pianist and accompanist.

Kitty Parker was born 'Catherine Parker' at 'Parknook'Lake River, near Longford, Tasmania. Her mother was Florence Agnes Parker [née Leary]; her father was Ernest James Rainey Parker. Florence was a superb pianist and gave many concerts. She made sure her daughters were musically trained. Kitty was the most successfully renowned. From 1904 to 1906 she studied for a diploma in Music in Melbourne. At the inaugural Australian Exhibition of Women's Work she won the Piano Solo Gold Medal. She travelled to London to study with Percy Grainger, who had very high praise for her work and kept in touch with her for many years.

Through Grainger, she met the English tenor Hubert Mortimer Eisdell, whom she married on 16 June 1910 at St Mark's Church, Hamilton Terrace, London. They had one son Michael (1912-1986). In 1911 she made her London concert début as a soloist. 

Her work consists mainly of songs for voice and piano and solo piano works. At least one of the latter (Nocturne in F-sharp minor) was published under the name "Kitty Parker".

 
♫ LISTEN

Arc-en-ciel by Katharine Parker 

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KARIN  HÖGHIELM - SWEDEN    

BORN 28 MARCH

Karin Höghielm was born and raised on Gotland and is a Swedish composer and singer. Studies in composition, different vocal techniques, classical piano, cello and flute. 

She have written several works for choir, soloinstruments, organ and chamber ensembles and her works has been performed in Sweden, Europe and USA by leading ensembles.

As a singer she is strongly influenced by classical singing and folk music, using wordless singing to latin, old nordic, sumerian and coptic and of course english and gotlandish (old swedish accent from Gotland).

Karin is also playing wineglass, bells, bone-flute, lyre, percussion and dulcimer.

She has recorded several CD:s in not so classical environment for chamber ensemble. She has also written music for art works, theatre, film, opera and dance. Her music is mostly tonal with strong melodies, often inspired by nature, different cultures and Early music and she is often using self-recorded sounds from nature, knitting machines in Norköping, Falu mine bell, Halla Church bell and scrap irons in her compositions.

♫ LISTEN

Så som det susar i säven by Karin Höghielm

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19 MARCH 2019

ELIZABETH MACONCHY - UK    

BORN 19 MARCH 

Elizabeth Maconchy was a composer of great versatility and unfailing integrity, amply deserving of a British critic’s description of her as ‘one of the most substantial composers these islands have yet produced’. Born to Irish parents in Hertfordshire on 19 March 1907, she grew up in rural Ireland, playing the piano and writing music from the age of six. She studied at the Royal College of Music with Vaughan Williams, who remained a lifelong friend; but she was attracted less by English pastoralism than by the central European modernism of Bartók and Janáček, and she completed her studies with K.B. Jirák in Prague.

In the post-war era, Maconchy was greatly in demand as a composer amongst the leading professional ensembles, orchestras and soloists of the day, whilst also writing for amateurs and students, and was recognised as a leader of her profession: she chaired the Composers’ Guild of Great Britain, was President of the Society for the Promotion of New Music, and in 1987 was appointed Dame of the British Empire. She lived in an Essex village with her husband, the scholar and medical historian William LeFanu, to whom she was married for over sixty years; the younger of their two daughters is the composer Nicola LeFanu. ‘Betty’ Maconchy, as she was affectionately known by many, died in November 1994.

 
♫ LISTEN

Overture, Proud Thames by Elizabeth Maconchy

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KATIA TIUTIUNNIK - AUSTRALIA   

BORN 19 MARCH

Katia Tiutiunnik is an Australian violist, scholar and composer. She is of Russian, Ukrainian and Irish descent. 

Tiutiunnik's compositions have been published in Australia, Italy and the United States and are held in several international libraries, including the Bodleian Library at Oxford University (which also holds a copy of her doctoral thesis, The Symbolic Dimension: An Exploration of the Compositional Process),  Harvard College Library,  the National Library of Australia and the Wiener Music Library at Columbia University. On 11 December 2009, a revised version of Tiutiunnik's doctoral dissertation was published as a book and released internationally. Tiutiunnik's published dissertation received an extensive, scholarly review by Australian musicologist, Dr. Sally Macarthur, in the prestigious, peer reviewed journal, Musicology Australia, in July 2011.

The symbolic dimensions of a number of Tiutiunnik's compositions have been associated with the motif of the journey through darkness to illumination. Also, several of Tiutiunnik's works have been inspired by Islamic mysticism and related traditions—the musical symbols therein often manifesting themselves in the form of compositional processes emanating from her interpretations of Near Eastern traditions of numerology. Other important influences on the symbolic dimensions of Tiutiunnik's compositions include the landscapes, flora and fauna of Australia; historical and current events pertaining to the Middle East, in addition to the religion and mythology of Ancient Mesopotamia.

♫ LISTEN

Night Journey for String Quartet by Katia Tiutiunnik

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