Dmitry Sitkovetsky - Violinist, Conductor, Composer - Announces Fall 2023 Highlights

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Contact: Katy Salomon | Primo Artists | VP, Public Relations 
katy@primoartists.com | 212.837.8466 

 Conductor and Violinist Dmitry Sitkovetsky
Announces Fall 2023 Highlights

Return to New European Strings Chamber Orchestra as Founding Music Director

Featured Conductor and Soloist with Silesian Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra

Juror for New York Young Concert Artists Auditions, Concertino Praga:
Antonín Dvorák International Radio Competition for Young Musicians, 
and Katowice Fitelberg Conducting Competition

Masterclasses at Blackmore International Music Academy
and Hamburg Schloss Academy

Summer 2023 Featured Sofia and Riga Debuts, Plus Multiple Festivals:
Varna, Verbier, Gabala and Clandeboye

“Dmitry Sitkovetsky’s greatness as a violinist and conductor is well known,
but his skills in arranging music for orchestra is equally impressive.” – Vasabladet

www.dmitrysitkovetsky.com
 

New York, NY (September 11, 2023) – Celebrated as a true Renaissance artist, Dmitry Sitkovetsky is known worldwide as a prolific violinist, recording artist, conductor, creator, and transcriber. Just off his last of 20 seasons as Music Director of the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra – plus a full summer of European engagements – Sitkovetsky embarks on a fall season that takes him through four countries in its first two months. Sitkovetsky will appear as both violinist and conductor with the New European Strings Chamber Orchestra (NES) – the ensemble he founded in 1990 – and with the Silesian Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, Poland. As a juror, he adjudicates competitors in the New York Young Concert Artists Semi-Final and Final Auditions, as well as the Katowice Fitelberg Conducting Competition Jury (Poland) and the Concertino Praga: Antonín Dvorák International Radio Competition for Young Musicians (Czech Republic), where he serves as jury president. In addition, he leads masterclasses with the Blackmore International Music Academy (Berlin, Germany) and with Hamburg Schloss Academy (Hamburg, Germany).

Founded by Sitkovetsky not long after the fall of the Soviet Union, the New European Strings Chamber Orchestra earned its eminent reputation by bringing together top musicians from both Western and Soviet/Russian backgrounds after decades of separation. This year, Sitkovetsky returns to alternately perform and conduct in Sitkovetsky & Bartoš Play Mendelssohn, a program also featuring works by Bach, Tchaikovsky and Dohnányi – including Sitkovetsky’s own arrangements of Bach’s Dance Suite for Strings and Dohnányi’s Serenade in C Major, Op. 10. He will be featured in the program alongside the celebrated Czech pianist Jan Bartoš. Performances will take place Saturday, September 23, 2023 at 8:00PM at the Dvorák Prague International Music Festival (Prague, Czech Republic) and Sunday, September 24, 2023 at 6:00PM at the Evangelical Church of Christ in Ostrava, Czech Republic.

Sitkovetsky later appears as violin soloist and conductor for Stars of the Season, a program performed by the Silesian Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra on Friday, October 6 at 7:00PM in the Concert Hall Karol Stryja in Katowice, Poland. The program includes Bach’s Dance Suite No. 1 and Chopin’s Prelude in D flat major op. 28 No. 15 – both arranged by Sitkovetsky – as well as Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in D minor, featuring Sitkovetsky as soloist. Britten’s Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, Op. 10 completes the program.

In his first U.S. engagement of the season, Sitkovetsky serves on the jury panel for the New York Young Concert Artists Semi-Final and Final Auditions Jury at Kaufman Music Center’s Merkin Hall in New York City from November 7-11, 2023. This rigorous audition process determines which exceptional young musicians will join the three-year YCA Fellowship Program, a platform providing training, mentorship and performance opportunities in New York City, Washington D.C., and worldwide.

Sitkovetsky also serves as juror for two European competitions, first as jury president at the Concertino Praga: Antonín Dvorák International Radio Competition for Young Musicians held September 14-17, 2023 in Prague, Czech Republic. A longstanding member of the European Music Competitions for Youth, the prestigious competition selects for the most outstanding 15- and 16-year-old musicians across multiple instruments. Sitkovetsky later serves on the jury for the Katowice Fitelberg Conducting Competition, held November 17-26, 2023 in Katowice, Poland. Open to conductors under age 35, the competition has recognized emerging conductors later famed on stages across Europe, including Claus Peter Flor, Director of Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, and Andrzej Boreyko, Artistic Director of the National Philharmonic in Warsaw.

In two masterclasses scheduled for the early part of this season, Sitkovetsky appears first at Blackmore International Music Academy in Hamburg Germany, where he leads a violin masterclass from September 7-12, 2023. Select participants in the course, chosen by Sitkovetsky, will be awarded solo concerts in Berlin. From October 9-12, 2023, he leads a second masterclass in violin at the Hamburg Schloss Academy in Hamburg, Germany.

Sitkovetsky opens the new season on the heels of a memorable summer schedule, highlighted by his Sofia Philharmonic debut as violin soloist on his own arrangement of Stravinsky’s Divertimento for Violin & Orchestra. He later made his recital debut in Riga, Latvia, alongside the standout Latvian pianist Daumants Liepins, in a program of Bach, Brahms, Beethoven and Bartók. At the Varna Festival in Bulgaria, he conducted the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra in a program of Bach, Mendelssohn and Dohnányi. At the Verbier Festival (Verbier, Switzerland) he appeared at the Gala Concert for the Festival’s 30th Anniversary for a unique performance of his special transcription of Bach’s Goldberg Variations. The piece was performed that evening by 42 world-class musicians including Joshua Bell, Lisa Batiashvili, Janine Jansen, Leonidas Kavakos, Nicola Benedetti, Augustin Hadelich, Antoine Tamestit, Lawrence Power, Gautier and Renaud Capucon, Mischa Maisky, Klaus Makela, Lahav Shani, Ebene Quartet, Martin Frost, Hokan Hardenberger, Richard Goode, Lucas Debargue, Sergei Babayan and Brad Mehldau, among others. Sitkovetsky also appeared this summer in Baku, Azerbaijan – the city of his birth – to conduct and perform with the Baku Chamber Orchestra at the Gabala International Music Festival. He closed the summer in Belfast, Northern Ireland, performing in a series of five chamber music concerts at the Clandeboye Festival, where he also led a masterclass.

Dmitry Sitkovetsky 2023-2024 Season Calendar
September 8-12, 2023
Blackmore International Music Academy: Masterclass
Blackmore’s – Berlins Musikzimmer | Berlin, Germany
Link: blackmore-academy.com/masterclasses/dmitry-sitkovetsky-6/

September 14-17, 2023
Concertino Praga: Antonín Dvorák International Radio Competition for Young Musicians (Jury President)
Prague, Czech Republic
Link: emcy.org/competitions/antonin-dvorak-international-radio-competition-for-young-musicians-concertino-praga/

September 23, 2023
Dvorák Prague International Music Festival Presents New European Strings (NES) Chamber Orchestra
Bethlehem Chapel | Prague, Czech Republic
Link: www.dvorakovapraha.cz/en/programme/detail/new-european-strings-d-sitkovetsky-j-bartos-1/

September 24, 2023
New European Strings Orchestra: Sitkovetsky & Bartoš Play Mendelssohn
Evangelical Church of Christ | Ostrava, Czech Republic
Link: shf.cz/en/program/sitkovetsky-bartos-play-mendelssohn/

October 6, 2023
Silesian Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra: Stars of the Season
Concert Hall Karol Stryja | Katowice, Poland
Link: filharmonia-slaska.eu/production/gwiazdy-sezonu-dmitry-sitkovetsky-bach-chopin-mendelssohn-britten/

October 9-12, 2023
Hamburg Schloss Academy: Masterclass
Villa Rahlstedt | Hamburg, Germany
Link: schlossakademie.com/mast

November 7-11, 2023
New York Young Concert Artists Semi-Final and Final Auditions Jury
Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center | New York, NY
Link: yca.org/auditions-guidelines/

November 17-26, 2023
Katowice Fitelberg Conducting Competition Jury
Henryk Mikolaj Górecki Silesian Philharmonic | Katowice, Poland
Link: filharmonia-slaska.eu/en/the-grzegorz-fitelberg-international-competition-for-conductors/#:~:text=About the Competition&text=It has been organised in,the inauguration of the event

About Dmitry Sitkovetsky
Last season, Sitkovetsky closed a major chapter in his career, leading North Carolina’s Greensboro Symphony Orchestra in his 20th and final season as Music Director. Over two decades with the orchestra, Sitkovetsky curated more than 120 different orchestral programs, featuring such soloists as Emmanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman, Garrick Ohlsson and Pinchas Zukerman. Among last season’s international highlights, Sitkovetsky made key appearances in Israel – performing at the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival and conducting the Israel Jerusalem Camerata – and in Mexico, where he played at the Guadalajara Chamber Music Festival and conducted the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional. He was also featured in concerts in Berlin, Germany; Bucharest, Romania; Havana, Cuba; Istanbul, Turkey; Baku, Azerbaijan; and Sofia, Bulgaria.

In a flourishing career as a conductor, Sitkovetsky has worked with such orchestras as Academy of St-Martin-In-The-Fields, Dallas Symphony, London Philharmonic, Orchestre de chambre de Paris, Lucerne Symphony, Orchestra della Toscana, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Shanghai Symphony, Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra and Japan Century Symphony, amongst others. In 1990, he founded the New European Strings Chamber Orchestra (NES) – bringing together the most distinguished string players from the top European ensembles.

His celebrated career is documented in an extensive discography of more than 40 recordings, reflecting the impressive breadth of his repertoire. His recording collaborators to date include such orchestras as the London Symphony, Philharmonia, and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, alongside such legendary maestros as Sir Colin Davis, Mariss Jansons, Sir Neville Marriner, and Lord Yehudi Menuhin. As a soloist, Sitkovetsky has performed with the world’s leading orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra, LA Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus, New York Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, and Philadelphia Orchestra, among others.

Sitkovetsky has been invited to create, develop and lead a number of festivals, including the Korsholm Music Festival, Finland (1983-1993, and 2002), the Seattle International Music Festival (1992-1997), the Silk Route of Music, Azerbaijan (1999), and the Festival del Sole, Tuscany (2003-2006). He is also in high demand as a jury member, musical expert and educator.

Sitkovetsky’s name has become synonymous with the art of transcription. His iconic orchestral and string trio versions of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations are performed worldwide. Following this unprecedented success, Sitkovetsky has gone on to arrange over 60 works of major repertoire. Learn more at www.dmitrysitkovetsky.com.

*Photo Credit: Panol De la Vega

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