The Birch Festival Returns for Spring: Featuring The Soldier’s Tale by Igor Stravinsky Conducted by Fernanda Lastra – Performed by Members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra & More
Announcing The Birch Festival Spring Edition: May 18-20, 2024
Yevgeny Kutik, Artistic Director & Rachel Barker, Executive Director
Featuring The Soldier’s Tale by Igor Stravinsky
Conducted by Fernanda Lastra with Narrator to be Announced
Featuring Members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra & More
Tickets and Registration Information: www.thebirchfestival.org
Lenox & Pittsfield, MA — Following a highly successful launch in fall 2023, The Birch Festival returns with a spring edition from May 18-20, 2024, bringing three days of music-making, yoga, and community engagement to the Berkshires. The Festival was founded last year by Lenox-based husband-and-wife team Yevgeny Kutik, an internationally renowned violinist who serves as Artistic Director, and writer/educator Rachel Barker, who is the non-profit organization’s Executive Director.
The Birch Festival’s mission is to bring world-leading musicians for artist residencies in Berkshire County schools, and work in tandem with local business and cultural partnerships. Kutik, a Belarusian-Jewish refugee resettled in Pittsfield by the Jewish Federation in the 1990s, named the festival for his grandmother Sima Berezkina, whose last name means “birch tree.” With significance in many global cultures, birch trees symbolize growth, resilience, and adaptability – qualities that Sima embodied.
The Birch Festival promotes and propels distinct voices in music, whether through new composition or creative interpretation of old favorites. The Festival offers leading musicians a chance to play and establish relationships in the Berkshires, while recognizing the importance of their work by offering compensation that sustains and values their efforts in this industry.
On Saturday, May 18, 2024 at 9:30am, The Birch Festival Co-Founder and Executive Director Rachel Barker will open the May edition of the Festival with a free community yoga class at The Church on the Hill Chapel (55 Main St. Lenox) in the beautiful labyrinth room. At 11:00am, also at The Church on the Hill Chapel, Barker will lead a workshop linking The Soldier's Tale to the archetypal elements of the Tarot.
The May edition of The Birch Festival features two performances of Igor Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier’s Tale) on Sunday, May 19, 2024 at 4pm at Duffin Theater, Lenox Memorial High School (197 East St., Lenox) and Monday, May 20, 2024 at 6pm at Zion Lutheran Church (74 First St., Pittsfield). The performances will be led by rising-star maestra Fernanda Lastra, currently assistant conductor with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. The performing ensemble will comprise some of the many leading instrumentalists who make the Berkshires such a musically rich community, including several members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The featured performers will be bassist Edwin Barker, violinist Yevgeny Kutik, trombonist Toby Oft, clarinetist Rob Patterson, bassoonist Rick Ranti, trumpeter Tom Siders, and percussionist Mike Williams. Each concert will also include solo and ensemble pieces performed by members of the ensemble.
In addition, the musicians will participate in community outreach by performing for the band, orchestra, and theater students of Pittsfield High School, furthering the Birch Festival’s goal of engaging the Berkshire community. Through school and community visits, The Birch Festival also encourages new audiences and builds community rapport by offering free tickets to any school-aged child and an adult family member, and prioritizing event accessibility for young adults.
“I’m excited to present Stravinsky’s beloved tale with such a great ensemble of musicians and colleagues,” says Kutik. “This work was originally conceived as a community theatrical work, presented from town to town. This spirit of sharing music with the community is exactly what The Birch Festival strives for. We can’t wait to see and connect with members of our community throughout the weekend.”
The Birch Festival’s Spring Events
Yoga by Birch with Rachel Barker
Saturday, May 18, 2024 at 9:30am
Church on the Hill Chapel
55 Main St., Lenox, MA
Join Rachel Barker, yoga and meditation instructor (E-RYT® 200, YACEP®), for a community free yoga class in the Church on the Hill Chapel’s beautiful labyrinth room. Free, registration required, limited to 10 participants. Please bring your own mats.
The Soldier’s Tale and the Tarot Workshop with Rachel Barker
Saturday, May 18, 2024 at 11:00am
Church on the Hill Chapel
55 Main St., Lenox, MA
A workshop linking The Soldier's Tale to the archetypal elements of the Tarot. Free, registration required, donations welcome, limited to 35 participants.
The Birch Festival Lenox Performance – Igor Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier’s Tale)
Sunday, May 19, 2024 at 4pm
Duffin Theater, Lenox Memorial High School
197 East St., Lenox, MA
Join The Birch Festival for a thrilling performance of Igor Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier’s Tale) and other performances by the ensemble. $20 per person; K-12 children and one guardian attend for free.
The Birch Festival Pittsfield Performance – Igor Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier’s Tale)
Monday, May 20, 2024 at 6pm
Zion Lutheran Church
74 First St., Pittsfield, MA
The Birch Festival ensemble will give a second performance of the program at Zion Lutheran Church in Pittsfield, after visiting Pittsfield High School earlier in the day for performance and educational outreach. $20 per person; KK-12 children and one guardian attend for free.
For The Birch Festival’s Complete Spring Schedule, Event Registration, and Details visit: www.thebirchfestival.org/events
About Yevgeny Kutik: 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 also lauded for his poetic and imaginative interpretations of both standard works and newly composed repertoire.
A native of Minsk, Belarus, Kutik began violin studies with his mother, Alla Zernitskaya, and immigrated to the US with his family at the age of five. An advocate for the Jewish Federations of North America, the organization that assisted his family in coming to the US, he regularly speaks and performs across the country to promote the assistance of refugees from around the world. Kutik’s discography, all on Marquis Classics, includes The Death of Juliet and Other Tales (2021), Meditations on Family (Marquis Classics 2019), Words Fail (2016), Music from the Suitcase (2014), and Sounds of Defiance (2012).
In August 2022, Kutik gave the world premiere of Cântico, a work for solo violin by Andreia Pinto Correia, at the Tanglewood Music Festival. The work was co-commissioned for Kutik by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Yevgeny Kutik was a featured soloist in Joseph Schwantner’s The Poet’s Hour – Soliloquy for Violin on 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. In 2021, Kutik made his debut with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra led by Leonard Slatkin, performing the world premiere of Schwantner’s Violin Concerto, an expansion of The Poet’s Hour written specifically for Kutik. In 2019, he made his debuts at the Kennedy Center, presented by Washington Performing Arts, and at the Ravinia Festival. 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.
Kutik 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 Rachel Barker: Rachel Barker is an educator and writer with over a decade of experience working in public and international schools and currently writes about science and engineering for Harvard University.
Barker has been awarded spots in writers workshops for both nonfiction and fiction, including the Key West Literary Seminar, the Aspen Institute's Aspen Summer Words, and multiple residencies with Write On, Door County. She has consulted and presented for a number of organizations throughout the country, including the Yale Council for African Studies, Flint Institute of Music, Boston University's African Studies Center, Primary Source, and the Wayland/Weston Interfaith Council on Teaching Religion in Schools.
Rachel Barker’s MEd. is from Boston College, where she graduated with a focus on social justice and teaching English language learners. Her undergraduate degree in Anthropology is from Boston University, and she currently studies Religion at Harvard University.
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