Nov 12: Violinist Yevgeny Kutik Makes Debut as Soloist with Huntsville Symphony Orchestra

[Note: Photo by Corey Hayes available in high resolution at www.jensenartists.com/yevgeny-kutik.]

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Violinist Yevgeny Kutik Makes Debut as Soloist with Huntsville Symphony Orchestra Performing Beethoven’s Triple Concerto

Plus a Performance of Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Cello

Friday, November 12, 2021 at 7:30pm
Mark C. Smith Concert Hall, Von Braun Center | 700 Monroe St SW | Huntsville, AL
Tickets and Information: www.hso.org/concerts/beethoven-triple-concerto

“polished dexterity and genteel, old-world charm” – WQXR | www.yevgenykutik.com

Huntsville, AL — On Friday, November 12, 2021 at 7:30pm, Russian-American violinist Yevgeny Kutik, known for his “dark-hued tone and razor-sharp technique,” (The New York Times) makes his debut with the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra led by Gregory Vajda at Mark C. Smith Concert Hall, Von Braun Center (700 Monroe St SW). Chamber music and the full symphony orchestra meet in this evening’s unique program, opening with Ravel’s Le tombeau de Couperin, a perennial favorite, highlighting the colors of a chamber orchestra while paying patriotic tribute to the French musical tradition.

For a chamber music interlude, Kutik and cellist Emilio Colón will take the stage for Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Cello, a strikingly different work than Le tombeau de Couperin, experimental and virtuosic in character. The orchestra rejoins for Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, composed for his patron and student, the Archduke Rudolph. It is a marvelous essay for piano trio and orchestra, among Beethoven’s favorites of his own work. Kutik and Colón will be joined by pianist Katherine Chi to perform the Triple Concerto with the orchestra.

“I am delighted to be a part of this unique and exciting program with the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra,” says Kutik. “The Beethoven Triple Concerto is a truly joyful and heroic piece of music. While there is plenty of virtuosity for everyone, some of the most beautiful moments in this masterful work happen with unexpected subtlety and understatement. This is true as well for the Ravel Duo which is rightfully a masterpiece for violin and cello. Amidst the virtuosity is stunning beauty and a hidden world of color.”

About Yevgeny Kutik: Yevgeny Kutik has captivated audiences worldwide with an old-world sound that communicates a modern intellect. Praised for his technical precision and virtuosity, he is also lauded for his poetic and imaginative interpretations of standard works as well as rarely heard and newly composed repertoire.

A native of Minsk, Belarus, Yevgeny Kutik immigrated to the United States with his family at the age of five. As a follow-up to his 2014 album, Music from the Suitcase: A Collection of Russian Miniatures (Marquis Classics), in 2019 Kutik launched a new commissioning and recording project titled Meditations on Family via Marquis Classics. He commissioned eight composers to translate a personal family photo into a short musical miniature for violin and various ensemble, envisioning the project as a living archive of new works inspired by memories, home, and belonging. Each track was released digitally weekly, and the full EP CD, produced by four-time Grammy winner Jesse Lewis, was released on March 22, 2019. Strings Magazine featured Kutik and Meditations on Family as its cover story for the March/April issue. Kutik’s other recordings include his debut album, Sounds of Defiance (Marquis 2012), and Words Fail (Marquis 2016), both released to critical acclaim. His next album, The Death of Juliet and Other Tales, is slated for release in Fall 2021 on Marquis and includes music by Prokofiev and folk music that inspired Prokofiev. 

In February 2021, Kutik launched Finding Home: Music from the Suitcase in Concert, a five-episode docu-recital series filmed at the Shalin Liu Performance Center in Rockport, MA, based on Kutik’s 2014 album Music from the Suitcase (Marquis Classics). Each 30-40-minute episode features music performances, including works from the album, interwoven with Kutik’s personal narrative storytelling, as Kutik explores anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union, his family’s months as “stateless” refugees, the amazement and challenges of starting a new home in the United States, his teachers and mentors, and lessons for the future. Episodes are available to stream at www.musicfromthesuitcase.com/watch-episodes 

In 2019, Yevgeny Kutik made his debuts at the Kennedy Center, presented by Washington Performing Arts, and at the Ravinia Festival. Recent performances include appearances with the Dayton Philharmonic, La Crosse Symphony, El Paso Symphony, New Bedford Symphony, the Cape Town Philharmonic in South Africa, Morris Museum, Honest Brook Music Festival, and the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Performances in 2021-2022 include appearances with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Greensboro Symphony Orchestra, Huntsville Symphony, Traverse Symphony Orchestra, and Minnesota Sinfonia.

Passionate about his heritage and its influence on his artistry, Kutik is an advocate for the Jewish Federations of North America, the organization that assisted his family in coming to the United States, and regularly speaks and performs across the United States to both raise awareness and promote the assistance of refugees from around the world.

Yevgeny Kutik made his major orchestral debut in 2003 with Keith Lockhart and The Boston Pops as the First Prize recipient of the Boston Symphony Orchestra Young Artists Competition. In 2006, he was awarded the Salon de Virtuosi Grant as well as the Tanglewood Music Center Jules Reiner Violin Prize.

Yevgeny Kutik began violin studies with his mother, Alla Zernitskaya, and went on to study with Zinaida Gilels, Shirley Givens, Roman Totenberg, and Donald Weilerstein. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Boston University and a master’s degree from the New England Conservatory and currently resides in Boston. Kutik’s violin was crafted in Italy in 1915 by Stefano Scarampella. For more information, please visit www.yevgenykutik.com.

About the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra: Long considered the region’s premier performing arts group, the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra has set the standard in North Alabama for artistic quality, community support and service through education. For over five decades, the HSO’s acclaimed concerts and award-winning education programs have inspired performers, audiences, children, benefactors and the entire community.

Founded in 1955, the HSO is the oldest, continuously operating professional orchestra in the state of Alabama. The Orchestra’s genesis is intricately linked with the arrival of Wernher von Braun and his German rocket team, marking the beginning of an era of sensational growth in our city and creating a unique synthesis between old and new, cherished traditions and unprecedented progress. For more information, please visit www.hso.org.

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