The Ghent twin brothers Taha and Yassine Posman, pianist and clarinetist, are only 23 years old, but have already come a long way. Together with cellist Jacob Van Durme, they form the Trio Malatya, with which they have already won several prizes. They are musical all-rounders.
Taha conducts the Nove Canto choir with which he performs contemporary choral music. Yassine takes conducting lessons with the renowned Kristiina Poska, until last season conductor of the Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen.
Baptism of fire
In their youthful enthusiasm, the Posman brothers wanted to organize a festival with some friends. That group of friends has become a whole symphonic orchestra with which they gave a concert on May 2 in the Ghent Parnassuskerk. It was the baptism of fire for conductor Yassine Posman. On the programme the Hebrides Overture and Third Symphony of Mendelssohn with conductor Yassine and the piano concerto by Schumann with soloist Taha Posman. They had only a few days to rehearse. All students from the conservatoires in Ghent and Brussels who are committed to voluntarily and selflessly sacrificing a few days. It testifies to the persuasiveness of the Posman brothers to accomplish something like this in our time of profit-seeking and busy schedules.
They inherited that enthusiasm from their father André Posman, who in the nineties was instrumental in founding the Ghent concert hall De Rode Pomp. There he organized hundreds of chamber music concerts, often featuring contemporary music and big names. Russian artist Boris Shapovalov was a kind of house painter at De Rode Pomp. He painted large decorative walls in the concert hall and the foyer.
Despite political difficulties in Russia, Shapovalov is still a family friend of the Posmans. That is why the Shapovalov association was founded and the Posman brothers have been organizing the Shapovalov Sessions in the foyer of the former Rode Pomp since the beginning of this year. There fellow students get a platform and the spirit of the Rode Pomp is given new life. The ad hoc orchestra and project of May 2 was also named after him: the Shapovalov Orchestra.
Parnassus
The Ghent Parnassuskerk was a Franciscan church that was deconsecrated twenty years ago and today is a popular social restaurant. Above the audience hangs the giant skeleton of a fish, a metre-long wooden construction by French artist Jean-Pierre Clemenҫon. After the first measures of the Hebrides Overture, I notice that the orchestral sound remains balanced and even, thanks to that wooden fish. In churches, sounds sometimes merge together, here the sound fills the space without too much reverberation. The orchestra plays wonderfully together.
Conductor Yassine Posman keeps his troops perfectly in line. A seasoned conductor, you would think. The famous piano concerto by Schumann is then masterfully performed by brother Taha Posman. After the intermission, the Third Symphony of Mendelssohn, the Scottish, sounds as if performed by a professional orchestra that has been playing together for years. You would forget that this is an ad hoc orchestra, assembled for this one concert. What a wonderful initiative, born from the enthusiasm of the young people themselves. The enthusiasm and persuasiveness with which the Posman brothers were able to realize this and ascended their Parnassus.