Violinist Yevgeny Kutik Makes Solo Debut With Boston Civic Orchestra

On Sunday, June 13, 2021 at 3pm ET, Russian-American violinist Yevgeny Kutik will make his debut as soloist with the Boston Civic Symphony, performing Beethoven's Violin Concerto. Led by Music Director Francisco Noya, the program will be free to watch, broadcast live from the First Church in Cambridge. The program also includes Respighi's The Birds and Walker's Lyric for Strings.

"Beethoven's Violin Concerto is perhaps the best-known violin concerto in the entire repertoire. Interestingly, the premiere of this work in 1806 was not successful (possibly because the violinist was forced to sight-read the piece during the performance), so it lay un-played for nearly 40 years," says Kutik. "It is a wonderful privilege and honor to be able to perform and study this great work - and to build upon the legendary performance tradition of this piece."

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.

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, Huntsville Symphony, New Bedford Symphony, the Cape Town Philharmonic in South Africa, Morris Museum, Honest Brook Music Festival, and the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Upcoming 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.

To post a comment, you must register and login.