Oct. 18-19: The Birch Festival is Back in the Berkshires for Fall – Featured Performance: Bold Beginnings with Cellist Amit Peled, Pianist Roman Rabinovich, & Violinist Yevgeny Kutik
Announcing The Birch Festival Fall Edition: October 18-19, 2024
Yevgeny Kutik, Artistic Director & Rachel Barker, Executive Director
Featured Performance: October 19, 2024 at 4pm
Church on the Hill, Lenox
Bold Beginnings: First Works by Brahms, Beethoven, and More
Cellist Amit Peled, Pianist Roman Rabinovich, & Violinist Yevgeny Kutik
Tickets and Registration Information: www.thebirchfestival.org
Lenox, MA — The Birch Festival is back for the fall season from October 18-19, 2024. Returning just in time to embrace the Berkshires’ beautiful autumn foliage, this year’s festivities include an evening of wine, music, and community camaraderie with a musician meet-and-greet; the return of the “Don’t Tap on the Glass” open rehearsal; and a feature performance with cellist Amit Peled, pianist Roman Rabinovich, and violinist and Birch Festival Artistic Director and Co-Founder Yevgeny Kutik.
The Birch Festival was founded in 2022 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.
On Friday, October 18, 2024 from 6-7:30pm, The Birch Festival will present a free meet-and-greet event at the newly opened Doctor Sax House in Lenox, MA (35 Walker St). Attendees will have the opportunity to meet Kutik, Peled, and Rabinovich while enjoying a wine tasting provided by Dare Bottleshop and Provisions. Space will be limited. Registration is required. On Saturday, October 19 at 10:30am, the public is welcome to join the festival’s “Don’t Tap on the Glass” open rehearsal at the Church on the Hill in Lenox (55 Main St). No registration required.
Concluding the festival on Saturday, October 19 at 4pm, cellist Amit Peled, pianist Roman Rabinovich, and violinist Yevgeny Kutik will perform together in a program entitled Bold Beginnings. The concert will include performances of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Trio Op. 1 No. 3, Gaspar Cassadò’s Requiebros in D Major, Sergey Rachmaninov’s Prelude Op. 23 No. 5 and Johannes Brahms’ Piano Trio No. 1 in B Major, Op. 8. The performance will be held at the Church on the Hill in Lenox (55 Main St) and at 3:30pm there will be a pre-concert talk open to all ticket holders. Berkshire County Students and a guardian may attend for free. Tickets are available at www.thebirchfestival.org.
“For the third edition of The Birch Festival, we’re excited to be going bold by featuring works that Beethoven and Brahms wrote very early in their careers, works that foreshadow great music to come,” says Kutike. ”We love the Berkshires in the fall and are excited to celebrate with great music and artists.”
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.
The Birch Festival’s Spring Events
Artist Meet-and-Greet & Wine Tasting
Friday, October 18, 2024 from 6-7:30pm
Doctor Sax House
35 Walker St. Lenox, MA
Registration Required: www.thebirchfestival.org
Wine and music! Meet the Musicians of the Birch Festival at the newly opened Doctor Sax House while enjoying a wine tasting provided by Dare Bottleshop and Provisions. Space is limited, registration is required.
“Don’t Tap on the Glass” Open Rehearsal
Saturday, October 19 at 10:30am
Church on the Hill
55 Main St., Lenox, MA
Free and open to the public.
The Birch Festival welcomes the community of the Berkshires to enjoy some morning music at its “Don’t Tap on the Glass” open rehearsal at the Church on the Hill in Lenox. No registration required.
The Birch Festival Feature Performance – Bold Beginnings: First Works by Brahms, Beethoven, and More
Sunday, October 19, 2024 at 4pm
Church on the Hill
55 Main St., Lenox, MA
Tickets: www.thebirchfestival.org
Cellist Amit Peled, pianist Roman Rabinovich, and violinist Yevgeny Kutik will give a collaborative performance in a program entitled Bold Beginnings. The concert will feature Piano Trio Op. 1 No. 3 by Ludwig van Beethoven, Requiebros in D Major by Gaspar Cassadò, Prelude Op. 23 No. 5 by Sergey Rachmaninov, and Piano Trio No. 1 in B Major, Op. 8 by Johannes Brahms. Tickets are required. Berkshire County students and a guardian may attend for free. A pre-concert talk will be held at 3:30pm in the Church on the Hill.
For The Birch Festival’s Complete Fall Schedule, Event Registration, and More 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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