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Christina Jensen, christina@jensenartists.com
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“Kutik presented an elegantly phrased, sensitive interpretation that balanced passion with nuance. His performance of the Schnittke Sonata No. 1 was as compelling as his spoken introduction to it, both of which demonstrated a deep knowledge and understanding of the work...”
With a “dark-hued tone and razor-sharp technique” (The New York Times), violinist 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 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. His 2014 album, Music from the Suitcase: A Collection of Russian Miniatures (Marquis Classics), features music he found in his family’s suitcase after immigrating to the United States from the Soviet Union in 1990 and debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard Classical chart. The album garnered critical acclaim and was featured on NPR's All Things Considered and in The New York Times.
Committed to the music of our time, Kutik regularly gives premiere and repeat performances of major works by today’s most celebrated composers, and performs with leading orchestras across the country. In recent seasons, he has given the world premiere of Cântico, a work for solo violin by Andreia Pinto Correia co-commissioned for him by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and made his debut with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra led by Leonard Slatkin, performing the world premiere of Joseph Schwantner’s Violin Concerto, written specifically for him. Other recent and upcoming highlights include a solo performance with the Louisville Orchestra conducted by Ziwei Ma; the world premiere performance of a new violin concerto written by Eric Nathan with the Rhode Island Philharmonic, led by Ruth Reinhardt; plus solo performances with the Phoenix Symphony under Andrew Litton and the Grant Park Music Festival under Leonard Slatkin. This season Kutik also makes guest appearances with the Wisconsin Philharmonic, Winston-Salem Symphony, and The Coastal Symphony of Georgia performing Philip Glass's Violin Concerto No. 2 "The American Four Seasons. He recently gave the world premiere of Scattered Light by Jonathan Leshnoff presented by Newport Classical. Currently, Andrea Casarrubios is working on a new recital work composed for him to premiere in the 2027-2028 season.
Performance highlights for Kutik include his debuts at the Kennedy Center presented by Washington Performing Arts, and at the Ravinia Festival. He has appeared in recital as a part of the Dame Myra Hess Concerts Chicago; at UCLA; Peoples' Symphony Concerts, Kaufman Music Center, and National Sawdust in New York City; the Embassy Series and The Phillips Collection in Washington D.C.; and at the Lobkowicz Collections Prague presented by Prince William Lobkowicz. Festival performances have included the Tanglewood Music Festival, Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, Ravinia, the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele in Germany, and the Verbier Festival in Switzerland.
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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, and has since performed with orchestras throughout the country including the Rochester and Dayton Philharmonics; Detroit, Tallahassee, New Haven, Asheville, Wyoming, La Crosse and Glacier symphony orchestras; as well as Florida’s SYMPHONIA, New York City’s Riverside Symphony and Park Avenue Chamber Symphony, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston. Abroad, he has appeared as guest soloist with Germany’s Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock and WDR Rundfunk Orchestra Köln, Montenegro’s Montenegrin Symphony Orchestra, Japan’s Tokyo Vivaldi Ensemble, and the Cape Town Philharmonic in South Africa.
Kutik’s additional releases on Marquis include The Death of Juliet and Other Tales (2021), which highlights folklore and folktales portrayed in the music of Prokofiev. The album features new arrangements by Kutik, Michael Gandolfi, and Kati Agócs, commissioned specifically for the album. In 2019, he released Meditations on Family, for which 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. Strings Magazine featured Kutik as its cover story for the March/April issue, reporting, “True to Kutik’s vision, each miniature is a window into the composer’s emotional life.” Featured composers include Joseph Schwantner, Andreia Pinto Correia, Gity Razaz, Timo Andres, Chris Cerrone, Kinan Azmeh, Gregory Vajda, and Paola Prestini. Kutik’s 2016 album, Words Fail, uses Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words as a starting point to expand upon the idea that music surpasses traditional language in its expressive capabilities. His 2012 debut album, Sounds of Defiance, features the music of Achron, Pärt, Schnittke, and Shostakovich, focusing on music written during the darkest periods of the lives of these composers. Kutik also recorded episode six of Gerard Schwarz’s All-Star Orchestra, a made-for-television classical music concert series released on DVD by Naxos and broadcast nationally on PBS, performing Joseph Schwantner’s The Poet’s Hour – Soliloquy for Violin.
Passionate about his heritage and its influence on his artistry, Kutik remains closely involved with the organizations that helped bring his family to the United States. He regularly speaks and performs across the country to raise awareness and support for refugees from around the world. He was a featured performer at the 2012 March of the Living observances, playing at the Krakow Opera House and for more than 20,000 people at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
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 is the Artistic Director and co-founder of The Birch Festival, built around connecting and integrating leading musicians with the Berkshire community, while highlighting the unique and original stories of those who make up the Berkshires. He is the recipient of the Salon de Virtuosi Grant as well as the Tanglewood Music Center Jules Reiner Violin Prize. Yevgeny performs on an 1850 J.B. Vuillaume violin made in Paris.
“Kutik delivers the performances with a blend of polished dexterity and genteel, old-world charm.”
NEWS
PHOTOS
“On the recording [Music from the Suitcase], Mr. Kutik retells these stories with his dark-hued tone and razor-sharp technique, bringing out the zesty playfulness of Eshpai, the melodic genius of Prokofiev, or the cadenza-like virtuosity of an arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s ‘Russian Dance’ from Swan Lake.”
VIDEOS
“In [George Tsontakis’s Violin Concerto No. 2]’s solo passages the violin often projects an old-fashioned rhapsodic style, which was magnified by Yevgeny Kutik’s rich, sweet tone.”
“This is the first time I have heard Kutik, and I hope it will not be the last. He is always thinking, always playing the music, not just the notes.”